I am often asked – “How involved must parents be in their
children’s education?” As an educationist, I have realised this confounds not
just those whose kids study in kindergarten but those also studying in the
primary, secondary and higher school education. Whilst different approaches are
required across various stages of education, there is no questioning the fact
that parents must be involved in whatever best way possible to whatever extent
possible. For good reason.
Several studies undertaken have pointed to undeniable
linkages in stellar student learning outcomes and the intricate involvement of
parents within the education system. For e.g. a study conducted in 2010 by
researchers at the University of Leicester and University of Leeds concluded
that ‘parents' effort is more important for a child's educational attainment
than the school's effort, which in turn is more important than the child's own
effort’.
In other words, parents' efforts towards their child's educational
achievement is very important, as it plays a more significant role than that of
the school or child. Researchers derived that since a child whose parents put
more effort into his/her education does better at school, regardless of the
socio-economic standing of the family, policies aiming at ‘enhancing parental
effort might be effective in strengthening educational attainment’.
·
The school engages students and parents in creating
a collaborative culture based on a shared vision shared responsibility and a
sense of belonging.
·
Opportunities are provided for parents to learn
about the schools educational aims, programmes, and pedagogical approaches so
that they can support student learning.
·
The school creates student learning
opportunities by effectively using the skills of its own community members and
by building partnerships with external agencies such as local businesses and
professional organizations.
It is keeping this above framework in mind that we gave a
further impetus to the entire parent-child-teacher methodology and launched
‘Empowered Strategies’, a unique parent-teacher-student workshop held every
week, taking the parent-orientation sessions a step further in Billabong High
International School, Santacruz. Every week, Tuesday – Thursday, we hold such
workshops per grade from Primary to Secondary, covering per level each week. Teachers
moderate the session with parents forming random groups with students and
understanding a particular topic in a particular subject. Parents hence get to
know first hand the way curriculum is introduced to the student. We have begun
with subjects Business Management for grade 9, Mathematics, English and EVS for
grade 2, 6 and 7. Going forward, we plan to involve parents to conduct and
moderate the workshops.
The initial response to the workshops have been
overwhelmingly positive though we have staggered through some due to time
constraint on the part of parents but we hope to get there when parents,
students and teachers are on the same page. We have already gotten to learn remarkable
perspectives of both the students as well as the parents. For instance, parents
have asked us to open it across levels of pedagogy from methodology, learning
styles and tips strategies on multiple intelligences. We working around a way
with the timings so that working parents can also attend and contribute. What matters is that we have begun a journey
now we need to make it a successful one too!
All said and done, however, would like to conclude with a
disclaimer – that as with everything else, there needs to be a fine balance in
terms of limit of parental involvement so that it doesn’t transgress to over-involvement.
Doing a child’s homework, obsessively manoeuvring their free time, over-involvement
in home assignments etc. will only hamper a child’s true progress. Ultimately, loving a child is always about
doing what’s best for them and not that which might feel convenient for us.
