Parenting Resource Centres on Track for Year End

Plans are on track for the establishment of approximately 80 parenting places island wide by December 2013.

Speaking at an awards luncheon for teachers at the Jamaica Observer’s headquarters in Kingston on Friday (Oct. 25), Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites said the resource centres are being established by the National Parenting Support Commission, to provide parents with best practices on how to support their children’s education.

He underscored that parental support is crucial to the development of children, and urged more parents to get involved in their child’s educational development.

Established by the Ministry of Education, they are providing critical support and guidance to parents as they undertake the increasingly difficult task of child rearing.

The centres, considered one-stop-shops, provide a comfortable and attractive place for parents to go for information, courses, workshops, mentoring, recreational activities, income support training  and when possible, diagnostic and therapeutic services.

Parents also learn about their responsibilities under the law and the consequences of not fulfilling them, particularly as it relates to abuse or neglect.

In the meantime, he said the Ministry has already retrained more than 200 under-deployed teachers and reassigned them, with their consent, to other areas including Special Education/Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme.

The special luncheon honoured approximately 22 teachers from the Eastern Region who have assisted with the production and sales of the company’s educational publications.

The recognised teachers have actively employed the use of Jamaica Observer products, such as the weekly Study Centre and TEENage magazine, to aid in their students’ education.