He starts sobbing
uncontrollably as fears of missing another school day grips him.
The 12-year old class four-
pupil finally emerged from the bush, hurrying through cocoa farms, but cannot cover the remaining
four kilometers to Asawinsu, where he lives and schools, before class begins.
Asawinsu is in the Adansi South
District of the Ashanti Region.
With his hands firmly clutching
a bundle of firewood on his head, he hastens slowly lest he loses the worn-out
pair of slippers protecting his feet from the hot ground as he cries
intermittently.
Emma went to the farm at about
0400 hours with his parents and was released a few minutes to midday to go home
and prepare for school.
He has already missed two days
in the week due to work on the farm and was worried about a third day and its
consequences on his academics.
The frail and stunted looking
boy is not in this alone. He told the Ghana News Agency and a team from the
International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) that a couple of his friends also go
through similar routines.
Their task is mainly to weed
farms, gather cocoa beans and carry cocoa pods, firewood, and foodstuff home.
The children spend a good time
of the day on the farm, with some going to clear weeds before school and going
back to pick foodstuff. Unlike their parents, the children hardly wore
any protective farming gear.
Those who go back to the farm
to pick foodstuff after school are usually unable to do their homework having
gotten home late.
Though school enrollment in the community is high,
attendance is low, because the children are engaged in economic activities
during school hours.
 |
| Prof Naana Opoku Agyemang, Education Minister |
Charcoal burning is one such
economic activity. It is considered the only alternative for the very poor in
rural areas, with high demand for charcoal coming from city dwellers.
With
about 70 percent of the Ghanaian households relying on charcoal as
inexpensive fuel, its production has gradually become the preserve for rural
youth.
The activity is pervasive
during the cocoa off-season, when children help their parents in burning
charcoal as a stop-gap measure, waiting for the new cocoa season.
At Aborekrom, in the
Sefwi-Wiawso Municipality, Mr Emmanuel Kudadzi, ICI Community Child Protection
Committee (CCPC) Secretary, said charcoal burning is a major economic activity
for children of very poor parents during cocoa-off season.
He said pupils in the community
engage in the activity to get “quick money” for their school needs and the only
option to raise funds when they are sacked for school fees or books.
Unconfirmed reports suggest
that about 80 per cent of pupils in the community and other hamlets around the
area go into the energy-sapping activity of felling trees, cutting them into
sizes, and covering them with soil before they are fired into charcoal.
The children also help in
fetching water from very far distances to quench the fire and help in packing
the charcoal into sacks for sale.
Investigations show that
children play varied roles in the charcoal burning process, sometimes during
school hours and often reluctantly.
At Owusukrom in the Adansi
South District, male children from nine to 12 years old engage in illegal
mining (galamsey) in the Offin River, during school hours.
They go to school on Mondays,
Wednesdays and some Fridays and dedicate Tuesdays and Thursday to the economic
activity.
Mr Emmanuel Amoah, Head teacher
of the local District Assembly, Basic
School, said four boys in class four are known as illegal miners and hardly
come to school.
They are said to earn from GHȼ 10.00 to GHȼ 15.00 a day, mining in the
river from dawn to dusk.
According to author Jason A.
Schoeneberger’s ‘Longitudinal Attendance Patterns’ study, excessive absenteeism
increases the chances of a student eventually dropping out of school, which
could lead to long term consequences for them, such as lower average incomes,
higher incidences of unemployment, and a higher likelihood of incarceration.
Child Trends Data Bank (2015)
says attendance is an important factor in school success among children. It
says better attendance is related to higher academic achievement for students
of all backgrounds, but particularly for children with lower socio-economic
status.
Mr Edward Ansah, Parent Teacher
Association Chairman of Hintado D/A Primary School in the Wassa Amenfi East
District, said community members are headstrong, with differing attitude
towards education- hardly appreciating academic achievement.
He said some parents
deliberately refuse to hire adult labourers for their farms to keep their
children in school, arguing that they need the help of the children for light
works.
The Children’s Act 1998 says a
child under 15 years cannot be employed while the minimum age for engagement of
children in
light work is 13 years.
The law defines light work as
the work, which is not likely to be harmful to the health or development of the
child and does not affect school attendance or the capacity of the child to
benefit from education.
Section Eight of the Act
underscores the importance of the right of children to education and well-being
and says: "No person shall deprive a child access to education...or any
other thing required for his development."
Indications are that apart from
poverty, lack of basic social amenities in rural areas; contribute to the
engagement of children in some activities during school hours.
For instance, children are
tasked to walk several kilometres in search of water for domestic use in communities
where there is no water and during the dry season, they could spend 12 hours or
more in search of water, instead of being in class.
Some parents also think that
allowing their children to walk four or five kilometres to school in nearby
villages is uninspiring hence the need to engage them in “profitable” pursuits.
Unfortunately, this distorts
government’s policy with respect to the education of children.
Studies show that such
engagements produce physical stress due to the age and maturation of the child
and could affect his/her concentration at school and the breakdown of his/her health.
It is therefore not surprising
that a good number of such children do not do well in their Basic Education
Certificate Examination and only end up in galamsey pits, enduring life of pure
deprivation with no stimulation for proper physical and mental development.
ICI
IN ACTION
It is inspiring to see how the
ICI is working with players in the cocoa industry, farmers’ organisations,
international organisations and the government to eliminate child labour in
cocoa growing areas and to ensure a better future for children.
For instance, it is supporting
child-centered community development projects including construction of
classroom blocks, water projects, classroom furniture and capacity building in
good farming practices and income generating activities for cocoa farmers and
their wives.
It has also set up CCPCs in the
localities to sustain the campaign on child protection and child labour. The
committees are to educate the locals against child labour and arrest parents
who engage their children in hazardous work or any work that affects their
offspring education.
Unfortunately a good number of
the committees are ineffective. They appear only interested in lobbying for
projects for the communities and not much of “putting the child first.”
Consequently, though ICI
supports are helping increase school enrollment in the communities, the
children are struggling to remain in school, with relatively high pupil
absenteeism.
The children are gradually
becoming an endangered species - only objects of exploitation, whilst local
authorities-metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies appear unconcerned.
Checks in some assemblies
indicate that the welfare of children in rural areas appears not to be on the
priority list, meanwhile, they are enjoined by the Children’s Act to protect
the welfare and promote the rights of children within their jurisdictions.
It is therefore prudent for the
assemblies to partner relevant institutions and NGOs to work towards ensuring
that children remain in school during school hours to break the vicious cycle
the situation has now assumed.
A GNA feature by A.B. Kafui
Kanyi
Editorial
CHECK
THESE DRONES
We
carried last week the story of a victim of a drone incident. The incident which
occurred at Kokomlemle was described by eyewitnesses as frightening.
It emerged later that the drone
belonged to the Brazilian company Queiroz Galvao which was using it in its
work.
But the incident should move
the authorities to put in place the regulatory framework for these aerial
vehicles which are increasingly becoming part of the aviation landscape in the
country.
A number of companies and
individuals now own these vehicles, but so far there appears to be no proper
system for regulating them.
With time, their numbers are
sure to increase and if the country does not act to the control their movement,
we are sure to have confusion in the skies.
Even in the more advanced
countries, there have been troubling incidents involving drones.
Luckily we have been alerted.
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