EDUCATION Minister Andrew Holness says plans are in the advanced stages for the development of a parenting policy which will, among other things, bring parenting into the formal education system, and hold accountable those who are delinquent.

Holness, who was speaking at the launch of Parenting Month at the ministry’s offices in Kingston yesterday, said his newly appointed special advisor Dr Rebecca Tortello will be charged with developing that policy.

“I am hoping that by next year I will be going to go to Parliament with whatever legislation is necessary to have the policy executed,” Holness said.

The minister said a parenting commission would also be established, although he could not provide a timeline for its implementation.

Delinquent parents, he said, would also be brought to bear, although there was a cultural fear of challenging these things. “I hold no such cultural fear and so we have to challenge them if we are to get growth in this country,” he said.

The minister said, too, that he intended to elevate parenting and bring it into the formal realm of economical development. “We want to bring parenting and the family structures formally into the education system,” he added.

Children’s Advocate Mary Clarke commended the minister on plans to hold parents accountable. “In this country, for too long we just let things slip.

“Only yesterday I heard of a mother who introduced her 1-old-daughter to sexual abuse and told her to get use to it because this is how she was going to make money,” Clarke said.

“I said to the researcher we want to find this mother to hold her accountable and make examples of some of them,” she added.

Meanwhile, Dr Tortello said the creation of a parenting commission will provide framework for physical and policy development to collate all that currently exists.

“There are a number of NGOs working but there is a lot of replication and not enough dialogue,” she said, adding that the focus would also be on providing safe places for children to play.

In the meantime, Janet Davis, chairman of the Coalition for Better Parenting, said with more than 36 per cent of women becoming while they were still in school, it showed the importance of the coalition.