The value of parental training can’t be overstated
Calls over recent days by the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA)
— now marking its 60th anniversary
— and the Jamaica Association of Guidance Counsellors in Education (JAGCE) for more resources to deal with inadequacies in schools can’t be ignored.
JTA President Mr Leighton Johnson wants more money for school expenses, including meals, books, and other educational materials; and the recruitment of specialist teachers to assist struggling students.
In the case of specialist teachers, Mr Johnson points to “students who are placed in the upgraded high schools, students in pathways II and III, they require additional support, and these schools sometimes need additional reading teachers, additional literacy specialists…
“In many respects, schools have to do their own fund-raising to secure the services of these reading specialists as these individuals are not on the school’s establishment, and though the ministry will indicate that there is a facility to accommodate additional staff, we find that in many instances schools have to rely on their own resources to fund these positions…”
These are issues the nation must confront. A child who spends years in the school system and comes out without an adequate education in academics/vocations; or worse, is functionally illiterate, is likely to be angry, frustrated, lost.
When that’s linked to antisocial conditioning at home and in community
— as is often the case
— recruitment by those who profit from crime becomes much more likely.
In Jamaica, child psychologists and other experts have long pointed to the deadly consequences of that poisonous mix of poor education and negative socialisation.
That brings us to a cry from guidance counsellors
— the ones tasked more than most to influence positive behaviour change among children in schools
— that they are overworked and stressed because of staff shortages.
Education and Youth Minister Ms Fayval Williams is reported as having said last March that there was one guidance counsellor for every 500 students in the public school system
— which, to us, seems inadequate.
Ms Kaydian Facey, immediate past president of JAGCE, claims that in many schools the ratio is more than 600 students to one.
“[I]f you’re not mindful, you will become burnt out… The workload is extremely hard,” Ms Facey told this newspaper.
We know, and indeed, we hear, yet again, that poor parental involvement in the positive development of children is a core issue.
And, yet again, we hear the suggestion that parents who fail to positively influence their children should be sanctioned or penalised in some way.
The trouble with that proposed solution is the tragic fact that many adults, especially at base socio-economic levels, were themselves brought up improperly and, in fact, have no idea what is required to be good parents.
That’s why this newspaper has so often urged greater attention to parental training across the length and breadth of this country to break that awful cycle.
For that reason, the pledge by the education minister last year that more than 100,000 people will be trained in good parenting by the National Parenting Support Commission in the 2023-24 academic year
— more than twice the number of the previous year
— was akin to manna from heaven.
Hopefully that initiative is going as planned. We need much, much more of such people-oriented strategies if the multidimensional project of nation-building is to succeed.