The Executive Director of a local child rights campaign group called the Center to Protect Children Against Abuse Mr. Ebenezer PelahGoffah has expressed dissatisfaction over a practice by some schools that allegedly give out forms to school kids to solicit support from members of the public.
Mr. Goffah told reporters at his office in Kparkor Town, Po-River on 3 April that this practice by some school administrators continues to expose students to sexual molestation and harassment from some of those that the students interact with.
According to Mr. Goffah, in some of the schools, students are sent out with ‘Student Contribution Forms’ which bear the names of the schools and are stamped by the schools that sent them.
He notes that it exposes students to beg for money between LRD$100 to LRD$400 from those who fill in the forms to make onward presentation to their schools’ principals.
He claims that in the event where students fail to return such form with money, they are denied the opportunity to take their tests.Mr. Goffah warns that parents are not sending their kids to school to be used by principals to raise money.
He wonders what school administrators do with the tuition and other activity requirement fees they collect from students for which they have to sent students out with forms to beg for money of their institutions.
Mr. Goffah calls on the Ministry of Education to institute stringent penalty for any school principal caught in such behavior because it undermines the child’s rights to education.
He notes that it is unfair and embarrassing to see group of students dressed in their uniforms moving from government ministries to private business entities to ask people they meet for money.Mr. Goffah urges government to arrest, prosecute and suspend the operational licenses of those involved so as to stop the situation.
BY Emmanuel Mondaye –Edited by Winston W. Parley
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