Desmond Henry TREASURE BEACH:
WHAT A Bam, Bam! Perhaps we ought to pass a citizen's law making Education a permanent campaign issue in all future elections. Who knows, we would one day end up with a totally literate society which, come to think of it, might not be fancied by all the parties after all. Based on the reaction to date, you could easily get the wrong impression that one party has called for the execution of all students failing their final exams, rather than for the Government to merely start picking up the cost of all future high school fees. In light of all the current unashamed squandering of public funds, it is really hard to be convinced that education for free, could be something too expensive. Someone once said that if you think education is expensive, try illiteracy. Boy, aren't we realising that now.
Frankly, I believe this national focus on education is a godsend. As the off-spring of two dedicated primary school educationists, I can empathise with all those who would love to see a frenzied speeding up of the learning opportunity for all. As citizens of a hapless society gone mad, Jamaicans are now losing name and pointing blame. Each person now has their own finger-mate. To some it's the system, to others it's the school and teachers. I'd like to add a new dimension and focus on the parents.
My colleague National Council on Education (NCE) member, Ralph Thompson, has been writing convincingly on the need for a massive assault on pre-primary education. If you think his writings are persuasive, you should hear him speak on the subject. Others have been sounding off on the poor treatment of teachers and the woeful unevenness of the educational playing field including structures, salaries, equipment and conditions of habitation. I would like to focus on another often ignored factor - the level of parenting.
About two years ago, partly through my insistence, the NCE crafted a programme called 'Parents As Partners' for the expressed purpose of bringing to national attention the critical role parents play in helping children to understand, appreciate and accept going to school, as part of their normal inhaling and exhaling survival function. A Kingston seminar was mounted on the matter, with substantial inputs from a number of presenters on the participating role that parents must play in defining the importance of an education. It was pointed out, for example, that even with the best will in the world, many Jamaican parents, because they are themselves illiterate, feel intimidated by siblings coming home from school and innocently showing off their acquired reading skills on them. Parents who are not taught how to digest this phenomenon, could end up either being hostile to or non-supporting of their kids. Arising from the seminar, a small working guide was prepared by the Council, as the basis for the beginning of a larger effort to get as many parents as possible into the mode of responsible parenting. Many parents simply don't know how and where to begin.
A far greater effort will have to be made to get the parents of poor inner-city and rural kids to learn how to get their children prepared for school and for learning. They need to become students themselves in classes on parenting. And perhaps because it is a subject so awkward and embarrassing to talk about, we do a very poor job of dealing with it. Parent Teachers Associations are one thing, but if parents can only see PTA meetings as something that will show them up, you can be sure as hell that they will forever find excuses not to attend. Far more creative ways will have to be found to make parents realise the power they have over their children's intellectual, ethical and moral development. Until we reach that level of practical understanding, I don't believe we can truly lick the problem of illiteracy. Indeed, I suspect that a large part of the problem has had to do with the way many of us, who were blessed with parents from whom we learnt these skills, have taken it all for granted.
I believe that well organised and widely available programmes for the parents of young children could go a far way in improving school attendance and performance. But we need to get busy teaching parents in their homes, churches, schools and communities how to do it. One way might be to build grocery incentives awards into homes where parents show genuine commitment by attending community-led programmes in parenting. I agree with Ralph Thompson that the accent must be on pre-schoolers. And you know what? It just so happens that many of the pre-schoolers might also be parents themselves.
The Bottom Line: It is always better to help someone help themself rather than just to help someone.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
