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The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) directive to its district offices to give priority to the biometric registration of school children has received widespread applause in the Asante-Akim South District. The people have welcomed it as a right step and said it would help to prevent the incidence of absenteeism among school kids. Many children are forced to stay out of school for days just to go through the new health insurance registration, something that has become a big worry not only to the students and their parents, but the school authorities. Those, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said they were excited the NHIA had acted to make things easier for the students. Mr. Samuel Antwi, a Civil Servant at Juaso, said it was refreshing that some biometric registration machines had been sent to schools, where pupils from kindergarten to the senior high schools (SHS) are registered and issued with their biometric identification (ID) cards, same day. They pay a uniform fee of GH�4 to be registered. The GNA was in the district under STAR-Ghana�s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put the spotlight on how government�s resources were transforming lives particularly the rural population. The goal is to aid transparency, promote good local governance and accountability. Mr. Joseph Mensah, the District Manager, said the arrangement had helped to end the situation, where children struggled with adults to obtain the new health insurance cards. He said the cooperation of the District Education Directorate and school authorities had been commendable and spoke of their determination to get as many children as possible registered before schools vacate for the Christmas holidays.