I want to redirect the attention of the decision makers to the following concerns before they impose harsh punishments on parents. Truancy and child labour are global trends; children with disabled or single parents have themselves offered to work in order to support their families. There are underlying reasons why children would risk a beating than going to school, and that they are not ready to deal with. Some have genuine issues at the schools that they are not ready to confront while others have similar issues at home that disrupt their concentration at schools.
The last thing we would want to develop is an unnecessary burden upon parents whether by financial punishments or imprisonment for what seems to be stress caused underlying issues that require counselling.
That is why if parents should be supported to encourage education of their children, it should be a community social intervention such as health clinic and counselling children among their parents to resolve these issues, and not imposing fines or imprisonment.
You cannot establish a criminal population because of stress and other human behaviour. You just can’t introduce Socialism into the Fa’a-Samoa.

Find the parents first.
Counsel and advise the parents.
Help the parents see how to solve their economic problem.

Aren't most of us God fearing people therefore isn't it everyone's duty to ensure that our children are being properly treated and educated? I'm sure the children of these parents would love to afford them to be educated. But is it truly the parents fault if they too have received little, poor to no education and unsprisingly they themselves were probably children of uneducated parents as well? Sometimes the natural instinct to barely survive poses more of an urgent matter at present then to have an education. I think in desperate households such as these there is a deep rooted disparity to where as it's not as simple as we may think to just send our children off to school.

Investigate further before you start punishing and penalizing with an iron fist!

After years of callously ignoring the falling education standards, the scores of children selling thier wares, I find the governments turnaround bizarre. Is this the same Govt. lead by the same P.M who brazely declared that street vendoring was good for young children skill ot become salespeople when they grow up?