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The Adansi North District Education Directorate in collaboration with the District Assembly has launched a programme to check truancy and absenteeism among school children. The programme dubbed �Truancy Free Zone Initiative� involves counselling of school pupils and holding of community fora to draw attention to the need to ensure that children are not only enrolled in school but retained. Mr Joseph Kwabena Onyinah, the Ashanti Regional Education Director, said it was time pupils and students were assisted to appreciate that they had responsibility for their own future success. The only way the youth could assure themselves of brighter future was through education. The state, he said, has provided the infrastructure, teachers and learning materials and the pupils must take advantage of these by accepting to study hard and not to quit school. He said interventions like the capitation grant, school feeding programme and free uniforms for pupils in deprived areas were meant to reduce the drop out rate. Mr Onyinah urged parents to also take keen interest and invest in the schooling of their children and to make sure that they are properly supervised at home. Mr George Adjei-Henne, the District Director of Education, said the large number of children outside the school system in the area, engaged in illegal mining and other commercial activities, was worrying. The situation is completely unacceptable and everything must be done to change things for the better. Out of the 1,928 candidates presented for last year�s BECE results, only 163, representing 8.5 per cent scored between aggregates six and 15. Nana Okofo Subin Kan II, Dompoasehene, who chaired the ceremony welcome the initiative and pledged the support of the chiefs for its success. About 30 per cent of children of school going-age in the area are out of school.