A few decades ago, raising a child was the responsibility of the whole society. Traditional values called on parents to regard every child as their own. The absence of parents, for one reason or the other, did not leave behind any parenting void as every adult in the village stepped in. That was then. Today, the hustle and bustle to make ends meet, coupled with social and professional responsibilities, forces young couples to relegate parenting to domestic workers who also have the task of dropping off and picking up children at school. Other parents opt to take their offspring to boarding schools at a tender age, thereby bringing absentee parenting to another level. Unfortunately, the luxury will be no more. The government has issued instructions that, henceforth, no primary school going children will be admitted in boarding schools. Proponents of the new policy contend that a child needs the presence of parents in its formative years, but the modern lifestyle greatly interferes with the parent-child interaction and bonding. They also argue that young children are prone to foreign influences and peer pressure that could have devastating consequences in later life. But what can be done so that everyone comes out a winner? Maybe, in its wisdom, the government could revisit culture, as it did for Umuganda (communal work), Gacaca (traditional justice) and Ubudehe (social protection) to find a remedy. Not necessarily by reintroducing communal responsibility in the upbringing of a child, but having the Rwandan core values included in school programmes, so that everyone becomes their brother’s (in this case, child’s) keeper.
