The Role of Parents in Their Children's Education
It should be noted that parents play a major role in education, most especially their children’s education. From the very birth of the child to adulthood, they are being taught how to do certain things and those values live with them all through.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Saah H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Real-Life Learning
Such education is firstly practiced from home and it can be referred to as informal education. The role of parents when it comes to education is undefined as they are the foundation of a good, solid and fundamental education before we bring into the picture the teacher, who in some instances is referred to as the middle man.
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Compulsory Education
The formal education of a child is acquired and made possible when there is a solid foundation and that foundation is the parent. For example, in my country Liberia, many public schools lack the fundamental of good and foundational teaching because the parents show no interest as a result, many teachers will like to move to the private sector where there are more focus and attention by parents.
Lack of Parents’ Interest
If parents are not concern about the education of their kids, the society is negatively affected as a result; the environment becomes venerable to producing more illiterate people because the teachers will lack the courage and ability to impact unto the younger generation.
For example, from a survey conducted in 2015 by the CIA world book of record from my country, Liberia it states that the rate of literacy at 47.6% lowers than the rate of illiteracy which is at 52.4
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Parents Inclusion
Establishing a proper foundation for education will have to involve the positive contribution of parents as they are at the forefront of the child’s education followed by the government, the teachers and the environment in which the child lives. Giving the child the right training as it relates to education helps put them in the right direction.
A nation with a better standing of educational activities is bound to prosper. Based on this statement I will like to give few facts as related to some African states that are back word because of the lack of proper educational fundamentals from homes, as a result, these countries are struggling for development as we speak.
If our parents will start to nurture their children from homes and support the idea of promoting education in every aspect of their life, I am sure if not 100% but at least 80-90% of the world would have been up to standard.
In many home issues of parental education is not important as such they children will not be encouraged to get the education need, most of whom affect the females.
If parents will accept the responsibility of having a home-oriented education; females are likely to share a good portion of that responsibility because they are the most effective in many instances.
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Research on The Issue
An American educator, Richard H. Wells stated that ‘For the child to be more successful, parents need to develop what he calls IEP (Individual Development Plan) for their kids.’ By doing this, the child will create a desire for education and spend more time developing the mind rather than destroying the mind.
If parents will create the desire to helping teachers in bringing out strategies that are benefiting to the growth of the school students will also create the desire of sharing with their parents those key points that affect them the most during the time of learning.
Most times the child will want to share with their parents those things that they think will help in the development of their education but they will lack the courage because the motivation and encouragement is not seen in the parents, as a result, the child makes a decision that I will learn because I want to make the difference and sometimes they just give up and create that desire of being someone else.
If parents are concerned about the daily activities of their children in school, they will create the desire of having a good learning environment because the child is fully aware that every time I go home my Mother or Father is always checking to see what I do at school so I need to do what is right.
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Partent-Teacher Communication
Engaging children about what is being done in school should be a major priority for parents because it creates in the mind of the child that whenever they go wrong you are there to check it up as a parent. Some of the ways we help in building a healthy school environment are by doing the below:
- Show love towards our children's education as mentioned above.
- Visit our children on campus to see the actual learning environment.
- Keep in talk with the teacher.
- Constantly ask our children about the activities on campus.
- Help our children with the necessary materials that will contribute to their education.
- Help in protecting the image of the school
In conclusion, I would like to say that in building a healthy learning environment parents need to fully participate in the education process. If parents will give the full support that is needed to obtaining a better education, school authority will in return provide the environment that supports good environment.
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Parents need to be given the required roles to play in the education process so that they can also help enrich the process of teaching and maintaining a good relationship for the betterment of everyone.
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