Most of the parents are working parents in today’s world. They are too busy to follow their kids’ schooling. Parents, especially, in private schools do not like to take the responsibility of supporting their kids in the school and at home. However, their involvement in the school plays a vital role in children’s academic results and social development.
Schools’ influence on children’s success is limited and they, without parental involvement, cannot assist the children to get better results. There must be support given in the school and at home. Unfortunately, most of the parents are not aware of the fact that they can actually make a big difference by getting involved in their children’s schooling.
Although some schools have a parental involvement plan and strategies in place, there are still many schools that do not pay attention to this reality. And these schools struggle to fully discover and utilize students’ potential because they are not in touch with them when they are at home. They do not know the mistakes that parents, unconsciously, make when they think they help their children by providing them with a broadband internet connection, a tablet, and a personal computer. Some of the parents do not notice they actually harm their own children. And these parents do not receive seminars and/or support from the schools.
Therefore, at the end of the day, it is the students who are harmed, depressed, struggle, and mostly drop out. It is crucial that schools and parents work together, help each other and keep themselves informed about what happens in school and at home so there would be consistency in their actions. I think this problem is one of the top educational problems in most of the countries and attention must be paid to this problem to find solutions.
Here are some suggestions for parents and schools
Home Visits
Visit students at home. True, it is a tiring job to visit students at home and for some, it culturally may not be appropriate. However, struggling at schools with certain problems may make us stressed and more tired. A home visit is a remedy for persisting problems. Give a try if you have never! Alternatively, you can invite them to school on an agreed time to discuss the problems. Today’s bonus J: Surprise the parents by inviting them to school to talk about something good about their kids.
Phone Calls
Call the parents, texts them, send pictures of the activities in the school. Make them feel part of the family.
Student Log
Stay away from making a generalization. Be specific! Register the important events both good and problems. When you meet the parents, share the information from your log book. You’ll amaze them.
Visit Teachers
Make yourself known to the teachers and school admin. Avoid frequent visits as this may bother them. Get an appointment before you go to meet a teacher. If you want to complain about something, do this without blaming. Focus on the problem, not the person.
Information Verification
The heading sounds so big, huh? Do not act quickly and exaggerate a problem based on the information you get from your child. Verify it with someone else. Nevertheless, do not ignore a piece of information you get from your child just because he is a child.
Have a Contact Person
Choose yourself one or two reasonable people from your child’s class for quick contact. However, I do not recommend you to be a part of a social media group as that would take up a lot of time and energy.
