With barely a month going into the opening of classes, Department of Education regional director Carolino Mordeno directed his personnel to conduct the back to school campaign that would monitor the parents in sending their children to school.
Mordeno said that personnel from DepEd, together with those from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, will go from one house to another to determine if there are children who are not being prepared for enrolment this June and the reasons for being so.
Mordeno said he agreed with Education Secretary Jesli Lapus that a law may be needed to impose sanctions against parents who fail or refuse to send their children to school.
He, however, said that there is already a provision in the Philippine Constitution and in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that oblige parents to provide formal education to their children.
A law may not be necessary on this matter, and instead implementing rules and regulations may be formulated and imposed against parents who violate this constitutional provision, Mordeno said.
Earlier, Lapus said he supported a bill, filed by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, seeking to impose penalties on parents who refuse to send their children to school.
This kind of law has been in practice in other countries, said Lapus, adding that poverty should not be made an excuse by parents in failing to provide education to their children.
Under the bill, parents who fail to send children to school will be sentenced to six years in prison and be fined with at least P100,000. Parents who abandon their children face a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of P100,000. — Ferliza C. Contratista/RAE