By
Bertha Badu-Agyei, GNA
Asikasu, June 25, GNA – The Eastern Regional
Director of the Department of Children, Mr Samuel Dartey, has warned parents to
desist from using their children to work on cocoa farms at the expense of their
education.
He said apart from cocoa farms and farming
activities, engaging children in all other businesses meant for adults such as
selling during school hours also constituted child labour and against the law.
According to him, the law however, permits
children to work after school for two to three hours and only at weekends, to
prevent children from being overburdened with exploitative work and concentrate
on their studies.
Speaking at a forum to commemorate the AU day
of the African Child at Asikasu, a cocoa growing community, near Koforidua, Mr
Dartey made it clear that parents who failed to send their children to school
could be prosecuted, as stipulated in the children’s Act 560.
He explained that Act 560 stipulates that
parents could be fined or even sentenced to a prison term for not being
responsible towards their children, especially their education, and urged the
Community Child Protection Committees (CCPC) to sensitize their members on
that.
The AU day of the African Child is celebrated
yearly to draw attention on the education and wellbeing of the African child
and in the Eastern Region, the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), in
collaboration with other stakeholders celebrated the Day at Asikasu.
A representative of the ICI, Mr Eric Arthur,
said the ICI was committed to ensuring that all children in cocoa growing
communities had access to education without any impediment.
He said as a result, the ICI through the CCPC
had put in several intervention such as donation alternative livelihood
programmes to ensure that cocoa farmers were financially sound to take care of
their wards education among others.
As part of the celebration, schoolchildren
from Jumapo, Mpaem, Oyoko and Asikasu and their satellite communities exhibited
the importance of education through drama, poetry recitals and quiz
competition.
GNA