Six young reporters campaigning on 'Quality Education for all children' a UNICEF project, have identified poverty and parental irresponsibility as the reasons why many children did not go to school. The young reporters aged between 10 and 17, sharing their experiences and challenges faced by Ghanaian children in an interview on a local radio station in Accra said during their campaign, it was realized that many children did not go to school because their parents could not provide them with basic educational materials, such as school uniforms, exercise books, bags and pens. They noted that, some children they interviewed engaged in different kinds of trade such as selling iced water, plantain chips and bread rather than going to school because they had to support their mothers’ who were mostly single parents, adding that some fathers of the children were irresponsible especially regarding the children’s education. The young reporters, Sandra Nyarko, Samuel Tronu, Stephen Iseh, Edith Asamani, Sophia Kuyoli and Miata Kuyichiana. The project is a special partnership between UNICEF and young reporters as part of the ongoing quality education awareness campaign conducted in collaboration with the confederation of African Football (CAF) using the tournament to hammer home the message of quality education for all Ghanaian children. According to them, some children said their parents did not see the importance of education, hence keeping them at home, while some unfortunate ones were orphans who could not afford formal education. Miata Kuyichiana, said some pupils walked about two hours every day to school while others went on empty stomach, saying, "these things affect the quality of education since most of them miss early morning lessons and perform poorly at school". Sandra Nyarko who appeared emotional did not understand why children in Ghana did not have equal opportunities to quality education, and appealed to the government to help provide quality educational facilities in all schools because children in the rural areas, especially lacked furniture and classrooms for quality education. Stephen Iseh, said using the African Cup of Nations season for the campaign was a laudable idea because he believed the campaign message will sink well since many children liked football. He said some children at the Street Academy in Accra (a school for street children) told him during an interview that the owner of the school used football as a platform to get them enroll in the school. The young reporters urged parents to give quality education to their children, adding, "a child without quality education is like a child in the dark." Peter De Vries, Chief of Education-UNICEF, said the quality education for all children campaign was organized during CAN 2008, because sports was important in the life of children for psychosocial development as well as good health He said the project was targeted at quality education for children in Ghana because many children still did not go to school while those at school lacked quality education for a brighter future. Dr Yasmin Ali Haque, United Nations Children's Fund Representative, said to help children go to school and also have quality education, there was the need to know what was keeping them out of school, the challenges they faced and how best to solve such problems. She said the best way to get children open-up was to use people they could easily share their problems with hence the use of the young reporters to educate, influence and campaign for quality education. SourceGNA