Lawyer Blames Poverty For School Drop-Outs

A Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Mr Uzoh Udoh, has blamed the violation of children’s right to education by parents on poverty.
Mr Udoh, who stated this in while speaking with The Tide in Port Harcourt at the weekend, expressed regrets that children of school going ages were usually found on the streets hawking wares during school hours.
He said economic factors were part of the reasons, children stayed on the streets during school hours.
He stated this that most parents cajoled their children into hawking.
“If things were good, parents will afford to put their children in school, and parents will do their business without involving their children”, Mr Udoh stated.
So far Udoh noted that urbanization went with lots of distraction and attributed the problem to early exposure of children to hustling.
He told parents to ensure that children of school going age were sent to school.
He urged the State to embark on campaign for children to be in school.
According to him, “The State can go the extra miles by providing uniforms and other requirements so that they can be in school”.
However, he also said it was the obligation of homes where they served as domestic servants to send them to school and pointed out that some of these servants could be helped by providing their needs, enlightening them and giving them employment.
He further stated that punishment awaited parents who did not send their children to school.
He said the best thing to do to erring parents was to arrest them or arrest their children who were caught hawking on the street.

Ekeke Favour