Speaker Bagbin Warns Parents Against Sending Children Abroad for Early Education

• Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin spoke at the launch of the National Integrity Awards Scheme in Parliament on Monday, July 7
• Bagbin argued that children sent abroad at a young age risk losing their attachment to family and their sense of Ghanaian identity
• The Speaker urged parents to allow their children to complete basic and secondary education in Ghana before considering overseas studies

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has cautioned Ghanaian parents against sending their children abroad for education at an early age, warning that the practice erodes family bonds and weakens national identity.

Bagbin made the remarks on Monday, July 7, during the launch of the National Integrity Awards Scheme at the D.F. Annan Auditorium in Parliament.

Addressing the audience at the event, the Speaker argued that parents who move their children overseas during their formative years run the risk of losing them entirely, both as members of the family and as committed Ghanaians.

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"Many of you who rush your children abroad to study, I beg you, you don't love your children because you know you are going to lose them," he said.

Bagbin urged parents to allow their children to complete their basic and secondary schooling within Ghana, suggesting that overseas education should only be pursued at the postgraduate level.

"It's when they study here and get to a stage of maturity, and they want to advance, and they are going to do a Master's, PhD, and that kind of thing, then you have hope that they will come back," he stated.

The Speaker went further, asserting that children relocated abroad at a very young age frequently grow up with little knowledge of or affection for Ghana, and in some cases become estranged from their own families.

Bagbin called on parents to reconsider the trend, describing it as a behaviour that ultimately harms both the family unit and the country. His appeal was direct: "Please, I beg you, let's change our ways."

The National Integrity Awards Scheme, under whose banner the remarks were made, aims to celebrate and incentivise ethical conduct and principled leadership in Ghanaian public and private life.

Source: YEN.com.gh