As the Ministry of Education (MoE) intensifies its countrywide campaign against truancy 35 minors from the Parika area were apprehended last month and their parents have since been issued letters of warning.
A report from the Schools Welfare Department, according to a MoE release, said the truants were arrested in the Parika Wharf area, Bushy Park, Farm, Parika Backdam and Parika Façade and Lookout. The campaign is part of the ministry’s drive to see that all school age children are in school.
The truants and their parents were counselled by Acting Chief Schools Welfare Officer Carol Melville in the presence of Schools Welfare Officers from Georgetown, Region Three, two police officers, a Probation Officer and a representative of Region Three Women’s Affairs Committee. The parents were subsequently issued warning letters, and some received referral documents to obtain material support from government and non-governmental organisations.
There were seven cases of parental neglect to educate the child along with one alleged case of child labour which if verified, will be forwarded to the Ministry of Labour, the report further said. The seven students whose parents have displayed a negligent attitude to their education were placed in schools and the Schools Welfare Department will be closely monitoring their attendance. If these children are found to be not attending school their parents will be taken to court by the department. Last month, seven parents in Region Six were taken to court for neglecting to educate their children. At those proceedings all the accused parents gave various reasons for their children not attending school but after a presentation of the findings of the truancy campaign in which the children were apprehended were made along with the head teacher’s reports, they changed their pleas to guilty. The magistrate who presided over the case had ordered that all the children attend school within a two-mile radius with immediate effect.
Education Minister Shaik Baksh had earlier announced that his ministry will take a tougher stance against truancy and negligent parents will be placed before the court. He explained that his ministry is moving in this direction because efforts to talk to parents of truants about the importance of educating their children were ineffective.
The minister had said too that the government is providing free uniforms, text books and other forms of support to students and all parents and teachers must honour their responsibility to support and educate children.
