Koforidua, Oct. 3, GNA- District Assemblies have been urged to pass bye-laws that would seek to punish parents who do not enrol their children in schools, following the implementation of the capitation grant policy by government.

Such a move, as suggested by Mr Anthony Donkor, Eastern Regional Co-coordinator of the Ghana National Commission on Culture (GNCC), would help curb the spectre of children roaming the streets with complaints that their school fees could not be paid by their parents. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Koforidua on Monday on the implication of the capitation grant policy currently being implemented for out-of-school children, Mr Donkor said if the assemblies acted on his suggestion, it would help reduce the incidence of parental neglect.

Child delinquency, the child advocate explained, resulted from the breakdown of home life and said with the new lease that the policy would offer, such children would be able to acquire some education and skills. Mr. Donkor was, however, sad with the lukewarm attitude of some parents towards the policy and said it was up to the Assemblies to enact bye-laws that would punish such erring parents to make sure that they did not blight the future of their wards.

The capitation grant policy, recently introduced by the government, caters for various fees, including tuition, cultural, examination and sports fees for all school going-children presently admitted to public basic educational institutions.

The increasing trend of parental neglect and single parenthood had pushed many school-going children to the streets and the capitation grant policy now gives such children new opportunities, granted that their parents would enrol them in school.