Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has urged Ghanaian parents to reconsider sending their children abroad at a young age for education, arguing that doing so weakens family ties and reduces the likelihood of them returning home.

Speaking at the launch of the National Integrity Awards Scheme at the D.F. Annan Auditorium in Parliament, Mr Bagbin said parents who send their children overseas from an early age often end up losing their connection with them.

"Many of you who rush your children abroad to study, I beg you, you don't love your children," he said.

"Because you know you are going to lose them."

According to the Speaker, children who complete their early education in Ghana before pursuing postgraduate studies abroad are more likely to return and contribute to national development.

"It's when they study here and get to a stage of maturity and they want to advance—they're going to do Master's, PhD and that kind of thing—then you have hope that they'll come back," he said.

"Those you carry as babies and send there, they won't even come to your funeral."

Mr Bagbin argued that children who grow up abroad may lose their attachment to their families and country.

"They don't know you, they don't have any attachment, they don't like your country, there's no patriotism there, they don't know what is a family," he said.

He contrasted family life in Ghana with what he described as the social realities in some foreign countries, claiming that people often live in isolation.

"If there is something smelling in the house, they call the law enforcement that there's some scent coming from this flat. They go there and the carriers will pick the body and that's the end," he said.

He appealed to parents to reconsider the practice of sending their children abroad at an early age.

"Please, I beg you, let's change our ways," Mr Bagbin urged.