EDITORIAL: Parenting cannot be delegated

It takes a whole village to raise a child, goes an old adage. In this era, this saying is still relevant because a child’s upbringing is still the responsibility of parents, the community and teachers/schools, among others. Teachers, just like parents, play an integral part in children’s upbringing as they are a major influence on their socialisation; impacting values and virtues that shape children into responsible and productive citizens. However, with the ever increasing tight schedules and work demands, some parents have practically ignored their parenting role. They reason that since the children spend most time at school, teachers would fully nurture the tender souls. This may be true to some extent. However, for schools to impart the right skills or virtues, parents must get fully involved in the schooling process. Parenting responsibilities cannot be delegated. Parents must get fully involved in the education process to ensure their children get the right education and are not derailed by peers or anyone else. You could have very good schools/teachers, but there is a limit to how much they can do for your child. Where parents have abdicated their role, the result has been poor performance, indiscipline and other undesirable behaviours children pick from peers and others. As the education sector players have rightly observed, teachers alone cannot effectively prepare children both morally and intellectually. So parents must look beyond paying school fees and get more involved in their children’s education process to create ground for teachers to do their job. Besides, how can one know their child is receiving the right schooling if they do not participate in the process? Some parents never visit their children at school to assess the learning environment or check their performance. Let’s act now and raise a responsible future generation.

Opinions

EDITORIAL: Parenting cannot be delegated