THE EDITOR, Sir:
I THINK the schools and families should ignore these school-rating reports and get on with the business of bringing back our education system into a serious partnership of school, parents, students, community and Government. Time spent throwing blame is time wasted.
I don't get enough time to focus on my school-going child and her school, and I am more fortunate than many parents in terms of availability of time. Although not a poor performer, my child (like many) just wants to have fun. It becomes an everyday commitment on the part of the family to re-focus children on the need for their education.
Yes, sometimes the actions of some teachers are annoying; but they are human beings. It's too easy to be blaming society's ills on a few salaried, time-constrained workers, much like ourselves. I wonder what, for example, can teachers do with students who don't attend schools because their socks are dirty. Teachers' only 'fault' seems to be their choice of profession.
It's okay for teachers to accept the notion that they are totally at fault for students' performance. I will only hold teachers and schools fully responsible for the performance of my child if upon my checks/monitoring and discussions with the school my child is not getting full and timely tuition/assessment/correction (all other supports, in my opinion, are good brawta).
As parents, it is still okay to give long boring lectures, tell stories of strengths, courage, dedication, brilliance, common sense, etc., among family friends and community and listen to them, hear what they say and what they do not say, cheer them on, dust them off when they fall and push them back into the race when necessary. Contrarily, parenting is a blessing but it is 'dirty' work. It is pain and sacrifice and no popularity contest. I suspect that that is why it was intended to be shared by two responsible adults.
I know it's not a popular notion but our children's performance (in and out) of school squarely rests with parents and, in the face of everything contrary, we should not abandon this responsibility. What? All a student needs to do is attend an A+, A, B+ or B school made so by teachers? Like all of us, the schools can probably do more, but for a society to now tell our children that their schools (and not them, not parents' supervision) are at fault for their poor performance is a bad, shameful example of adult behaviour and possibly a major source of our CXC problems. I will not do it.
I am, etc.,
JOAN GRANT
Kingston 3
