Parents Urged to Play Greater Role in Children’s Lives

Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Education’s Region Six, Yvette Dennis, has urged parents to become actively involved in their children’s lives, in order to promote optimal development, and academic excellence.
Speaking at a Community Parent Teachers Association Meeting hosted by the Green Park Primary and Junior High School in Old Harbour, St. Catherine, recently, Ms. Dennis disclosed that one of the major obstacles to academic achievement, which students face, is the lack of parental involvement.
“Majority of our children are living in single parent homes. Majority of our children are not going to be spending all their childhood years with both parents, and majority of our children are living in homes without fathers, and that is one of the greatest evils in society,” she said.
Ms. Dennis added that, “the Ministry of Education believes that every child can learn and every child must learn, and though we believe that, we know too, that without the involvement of parents that can’t happen so well at all. Parental involvement in a child’s life in educating our children, is critical. It is pivotal to emotional change. it is critical to every good thing that we want in society, and it is pivotal to children’s academic achievement”.
She said it was incumbent on parents to understand fully, the importance of the role they play, because without their involvement, homes suffer, schools suffer, and the society suffers.
Ms. Dennis implored the parents to remember that while the many variables around them would inevitably change, the importance of their roles as parents, and the need to put their children first, should be constant.
The parents were reminded that it is what they do at home that is reflected in the wider society, and in order to fix the ills, they would have to start by doing an effective job as parents.
Reiterating the theme for Parent Month, she pleaded with parents to “get it right from the start, and if you did not get it right from the start, it is not too late to get it right from the middle or wherever you are”.
The Ministry of Education is committed to assisting parents in carrying out their roles effectively, as indicated by the recent launch of the Parenting Support Commission, by the Minister of Education, Andrew Holness.
November, Parent Month, was observed under the theme: Parenting, Getting it Right from the Start.