PROMOTE FAMILY LIFE TO HELP CHECK STREETISM (PAGE 31)

The Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has suggested that the promotion of family life based on sound cultural practices should be included in the national plan to get the youth out of the streets.
He added that such a plan should also include an overall improvement in the socio-economic status of the people.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said since poverty had been identified as the cause of streetism in Ghana, measures such as sound education for the youth would be the best way to tackle the poverty cycle.
He was delivering the 13th congregation lecture of the University of Education Winneba (UEW) at Winneba on the theme: "Sustaining Excellence in Educational Leadership for Accelerated Development". His topic was the "Role of Education in Addressing "Streetism".
Defining "streetism" as the leaving of homeless or unmonitored children on the street, he drew a direct link between the phenomenon and drugs, crime, broken homes, disease and delinquency, adding that the phenomenon constituted an emerging challenge to one of the most disquieting challenges facing not only civil society but also the political society as well as religious leaders and that its magnitude was unknown even to public institutions.
Professor Frimpong-Boateng who is also the President of the Ghana Heart Foundation and the Chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), said unconfirmed estimates put the figure in the country at 100,000.
He said for the traditional African society "streetism" indicates that the once cherished value of collective societal responsibility towards children is fast disappearing.
He said in Ghana the two main categories of street children are the ones who migrate from the remote parts of the country to the cities and those who work on the street to supplement family income but return to the house at the end of the day.
He said vocational education should be seen as not only providing training and employment for the youth but also as an indispensable link in the chain of wealth creation and prosperity for the people.
He said education is the system that unearths hidden talents or ability, which can be described as a potential force that needs other variables to manifest its usefulness to society and that this calls for motivation and attitudinal change.
He therefore called on all to change their attitude to enable the country to achieve her goals which have eluded her for a long time.
Professor Frimpong-Boateng further called for the establishment of a strong link between the universities, industries and the government to enhance funding and the use of research.
The Vice-Chancellor of the UEW, Professor Asabere-Ameyaw, said since the problems of street children relate to drugs and crime, it is the collective responsibility of all to help curb the unfortunate phenomenon.