Delta to prosecute parents of children found loitering during school hours – Commissioner

The Delta State Government says it will arrest and prosecute parents or guardians of children of school age, who are found loitering found during school hours.
Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, told the News Agency of nigeria in Asaba, the Delta State capital, that the measure would start from the 2013/2014 academic session.
Muoboghare said that the measure was part of the strategies put in place by the government to enforce compulsory education, which would commence in the state in September.
He said: “From September, which will be the beginning of the 2013/2014 academic session, the already existing free education in the state will become compulsory and the government will also ensure that it is qualitative.”
Muoboghare noted that parents who failed to take their children to school were deliberately planning to ruin the future of their children.
“What government is saying is that such parents or guardians will be punished,” he said.
He also announced that from September, no classroom in any public primary and secondary school in the state that would have more than 40 students.
Muoboghare said that the state had enough teachers to cope with the students’ population, adding that currently, the teacher-student ratio in public schools was one teacher to 21 students on the average.
He conceded that public schools in the state had suffered neglect in the past, stressing, however, that “there has been infrastructural revolution in the state’s education sector.”
The commissioner disclosed that the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission and some oil companies had been aiding the government’s education development programme.
Besides, Muoboghare said that the state government would continue to support mission-owned schools in the state with additional financial grants and intervention programmes.
He stressed that the measure was to encourage the schools to meet and sustain the education standards designed by the government.
He said that one more mission-owned school had been returned to its former owner, increasing the number of the returned schools to 41.
He added: “We have started building new schools in the communities where some schools had been returned to their former owners.
“In fact, the new schools are already operating in temporary sites and at least 12 of the new schools under construction have been completed.”