Accra, July 28, -GNA---The Member of Parliament (MP) for Afigya-Sekyere East Constituency, Mr. David Henneric Yeboah has called for an education policy to discourage parents from sending their teenage youth abroad to pursue middle level education.

The policy should further sensitise the youth on the need to obtain basic education in Ghana before proceeding to pursue tertiary education abroad, if necessary.

Mr. Yeboah made the call on floor of parliament when he read a statement on the state of Ghanaians children abroad and the need to formulate an educational policy to reverse the trend.

The statement was an outcome of a workshop survey, conducted recently in the United States and United Kingdom, which revealed that a large proportion of Ghanaian youth sent abroad to pursue quality education, dropped-out of school at the high school level.

The outcome of such an initiative, he said does not justify the concerned parents' vision to provide quality education for their children overseas.

The MP stressed that some of such children ended as criminal gang members or in jail.

Mr. Yeboah attributed the unintended consequences of the initiative to cultural shock, lack of satisfactory parental control due to pressure of work, over protection by the numerous children's right laws and peer group influence.

He said abuse of alcohol, hard drugs and even prescribed but addictive drugs often landed the youth in trouble. The best period to send a child abroad was when the person was matured, disciplined and self-motivated.

The MP said it was for this reason that Ghanaians who enrolled at Universities abroad after secondary education at home have distinguished themselves in all fields of their academic disciplines. Mr. Yeboah, appealed to parents not to view any educational policy aimed at solving the problem as a violation of their right to send their children abroad but as an attempt to save the youth from such predicaments abroad.