Literacy Training For Parents Central Part of Education Transformation Process

Executive Director of the Education Transformation Team in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Dr. Frank Weeple, has said that his team will facilitate literacy training for parents as a central part of the reform process.
Dr. Weeple, who was addressing the National Parent Teachers’ Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) first annual conference held recently at the University of Technology Auditorium in Kingston, noted that the aim is to equip parents so that they will be able to support their children in reading.
“Children’s reading will improve if they are supported by their parents. Indeed, many parents improve their own reading by helping their children, by listening to them, and joining them in their reading,” Dr. Wheeple argued.
He urged the NPTAJ to assist the process by “supporting and advising on how best to do this,” while noting that discussions are being held with teachers’ colleges “about how to help to train parents in this role, and in conjunction with for example, community colleges, with the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning, with the Library Service.”
Dr. Weeple in the meantime, challenged the NPTAJ to take the agenda forward as advocates working on behalf of children or as pressure groups to represent the interests of parents.
He encouraged the organization to give parents a voice so that they can become successful stakeholders in the transformation process, “encouraging all schools to be more open and welcoming to parents, but above all, as a partner, supporting schools, supporting principals, supporting teachers to raise standards and improve the quality of education.”