A group of parents have been summoned to the prosecutor’s office in Dushanbe for children’s truancy.

The parents of a group of capital schoolchildren have told Asia-Plus that they were summoned to the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office today.    

The parents, who wanted to remain unnamed, noted that “regardless of whether a medical certificate was provided or not, if the child has more than 40 hours of absence, you must appear at the prosecutor's office.”   

According to them, the principal of the school (Asia-Plus has his name and school number) reportedly ordered them to appear at the Dushanbe prosecutor's office with passports and birth certificates of their children. 

The Dushanbe prosecutor’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment on the situation.  

Recall, many parents had been punished in various regions of Tajikistan in the previous years for children’s truancy.  Besides, many other parents had been held administrative liable to failure to observe norms of the country’s law on parental responsibility; they had been fined 165.00 somonis each for failing to control their children's attendance at school.    

The Constitution obliges parents to enable their children to attend school and that all children between the ages of seven and 16 must do so.

Tajikistan’s Penal Code stipulates that preventing children from attending school is punishable by up to two years in prison.