DON'T LEAVE TRAINING OF CHILDREN TO TEACHERS — IDRIS (PAGE 25)

THE Northern Region Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) committee has been inaugurated in Tamale with a call on parents and guardians to take particular interest in the development and welfare of their children and not leave such responsibilities to only teachers.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, who made the call in a speech read on his behalf, underscored the importance of proper child care to the accelerated development of the country.
‘‘If we want to lead this nation into the middle-income bracket, then we have to be more responsible to the healthy growth and education of our children,’’ he stressed.
‘‘The Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) is, therefore, prepared to support any initiative that addresses the needs and challenges of children in the region,’’ Alhaji Idris pledged.
The 11-member committee was to have been inaugurated last year but the event was postponed following the devastating floods in the area that claimed many lives and destroyed property. It would elect its chairman at the next sitting.
The ECCD policy objectives include the promotion of the survival, growth and development of all children under eight years in the country.
It is also to promote widespread acceptance and observance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the observance and enforcement of Children’s Act and the integration of ECCD issues into development planning schemes at the community, district, regional and national levels.
The minister described the inauguration of the committee as refreshing, since the quality of leadership of every country depended on how it treated its children.
Alhaji Idris, therefore, urged members to put in their best to justify the confidence reposed in them to ensure that children in the area would grow into responsible adults.
The Northern Regional Director of the Department of Children, Vandana Sumani Nayina, explained that among the functions of the committee were overseeing the activities of district committees on the welfare of children in those areas.
He noted that the effective implementation of the policy could help significantly in achieving full immunisation against vaccine-preventable diseases for at least 80 per cent of children below 11 years by 2005.
The director added that it also aimed at reducing maternal mortality rate, providing of antenatal care to all pregnant women, decreasing the incidence and rates of low birth weight babies and improving the availability of quality data on children and their families.