Students have decried parental involvement in education and challenged them to listen, understand and engage in open communication with their children.
This was revealed during Busoga
Education Dialogue organised by Enabel and Global Gateway Annual School Club Convention under the theme Promoting Action, parental involvement in Education held at Busoga High School Kamuli yesterday.
The Convention and dialogue enable schools, parents, students and teachers engage directly about their role and contributions to education and included Student Projects Exhibition on life skills, income generation and adolescent health, Student Parents and Teachers Dialogue and general celebrations
Enabel Education Program Manager William Mubiru urging parents to take lead in their children’s education pointed out that lack of mutual and open communication with learners, support and monitoring has led to school drop-outs and poor performance often wrongly blamed on teachers.
“It is disheartening and disservice to find that parents are disconnected from their children’s learning and without their active involvement the desired education outcomes can not be achieved or realised and it is the reason we as Enable organised regional dialogues and symposiums for over 6,000 parents across Busoga, Rwenzori, Acholi and West Nile,” Mubiru reported.
Ms Oliver Nambi the headteacher Busoga High and chairperson Kamuli Headteachers Association submitted that schools have a lot of challenges in their struggles to provide safe havens to the children as parents lack parenting understanding and appreciation of student led entrepreneurship and generational gap
“We are blessed to have Enabel, Global Gateway and other organisations coming our way to bridge the gap, mobilise parents and top up government provisions but still we are lacking as far as menstrual hygiene management is concerned in addition to sexual reproductive health rights information and services and these can easily be contained when our students take on entrepreneurship skills under the new curriculum yet to be embraced and appreciated,” Nambi voiced
The Students in their submissions raised concerns about limited awareness of career options, their struggle to balance academics with household responsibilities but above all the difficulty in talking to parents about sensitive personal issues curtailed by cultural norms and taboos
Kamuli District Principal Education Officer Aaron Gwolaba urged schools to acquaint themselves with and embrace the new curriculum which lays emphasis on skills development, relevance of education and productivity.
“Schools should provide reflection, empath and solution-oriented learning and we should find time to talk to our children, interact with the teachers who are co-parents,” the DEO called.
Enabel is a Belgium Agency for International Cooperation implementing a 4 year project aimed at improving access, retention and completion of lower secondary education with a focus on improving the quality of education, healthcare and skills development