Parents must be involved in the education of their children

Programmes Director, School For Life, Madam Wedad Sayibu has advocated for parental involvement in the daily learning activities of their wards to enhance positive learning outcomes.

She said her outfit has rolled out a programme to build the capacities of parents and teachers by creating a common platform for an effective parental guide to children’s learning cause.

Madam Sayibu impressed on parents to give off their best to their studies at a two-day project design orientation workshop to launch the Parental Learning for Uninterrupted Schooling (PLUS) Project in Tamale.

The event was to solicit input and generate ideas from key stakeholders on what innovative strategies should be used for effective implementation through the involvement of parents in the PLUS project.

The PLUS project, she said, would be pursued in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service and some Non-Governmental Organisations, and said it was funded by the Commonwealth Learning, and implemented by School for Life in two districts; Kumbunug and Nanton in the Northern Region.

Madam Sayibu said about 3,600 parents, 7,315 students including; 4,459 boys and 2,856 girls in Upper Primary and Junior Secondary School levels in 40 communities would benefit from the three-year PLUS project which has already started this year.

She said the project would increase the capacity of parents in marginalised communities to support and be involved in the learning of the children as well as increase community awareness on support for parental involvement to enhance communication collaboration among parents and teachers in school activities.

Consultant for Commonwealth Learning (COL), Mr Hanan Lassen Zakaria urged parents and families to be involved in their children’s education to strengthen their school performance, noting that parents served as the first and primary controllers on children’s development.

Mr Zakaria said active parental involvement would help to address school dropout phenomenon and encourage them to have higher aspirations, and inculcate more positive attitudes towards school and homework.

He added that parent’s involvement in the education of children would enhance better grades and improve the child’s academic performance and urged parents to volunteer to engage in some of the schools activities to build classrooms, or serve on school decision-making bodies.

“It is the duty of parents to know how the school system works, what programmes and activities are available, how these decisions affect their child’s chances for future success, which courses are needed to prepare for future jobs and careers, what teachers expect in their courses for students to do well, and in what ways parents can get involved in decisions that affect how schools operate”.