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Do parents know what their children should learn in school?
2006-02-28 08:20:53
By Grayson Farah
Education is a vital tool in fighting against poverty. With education, you can do anything.
Gone are the days when education used to be an important tool to a few. Nowadays it’s more of a necessity than a luxury.
In this light parents should be very particular about what their children learn in school.
The fact that everyone is now aware that education is vital for bringing about progress in life has made it prone to conmen.
Most people come masquerading as specialists in education and they play around with the curriculum telling parents that theirs is the best curriculum in the world.
Many parents have fallen prey to these pretenders. I am speaking from experience.
I have seen parents being cheated of their money and the worst thing is that the very same parents put so much trust in these pretenders who are interested in squeezing every penny out of them.
The current focus on globalisation has created a condusive environment for conmen to make money.
They constantly cheat parents by saying that they now offer the International curriculum in their school.
I once taught at one such school where parents were being cheated of their money under the auspice of international curriculum.
I learnt the international curriculum myself but I was more than shocked by what the school called international curriculum, it was far from it.
The painful thing is that the very few parents I told about it could not believe me.
I finally left the school because my conscience could not allow me to see parents and children being cheated and lied to daily yet do nothing about it.
I was glad to hear that truth finally came out and most parents got to know about it.
But for most of them it was too late when they came to know the truth, the damage had already been done.
This situation taught me something as a parent. I felt that parents should not take everything that school authorities say before verifying it.
The duty of a parent is not only to pay school fees but also to check on what the children are being taught.
Is it the right stuff ? Will it lead the children to where they want to be in life?
If you are not sure about what material your children should be exposed to, there are people trained to that.
We have specialists in education, consult them and make sure your children are learning what will make them prosper in life.
Make sure they are learning what they will practically use in life.
It is good to have a certificate but it is also important for that certificate to be accompanied by practical knowledge and a practical approach to real life situations.
Most people acquire certificates but find it very difficult to apply their knowledge when they get to work.
The question that follows is, how useful is a certificate if its holder cannot apply what he or she has learnt when in a practical situation?
People come with a lot of ideas because they know we are interested in new things.
Before we accept new things we should evaluate them and see if they are of any use to our own situations.
Because we parents always claim to be too busy to check on what our children are doing in school, most people cheat us into believing that they are offering the best education to our children.
We will only realise that we have been cheated when the child is roaming around the streets failing to get meaningful employment.
Such situations could be avoided if parents spare some time to find out the aims of the school and why their children have to be taught certain things in a particular way.
Our problem is that we think paying school fees is the only thing that a parent has to do.
But being a responsible parent means much more than that.
A responsible parent finds out what his or her child is learning in school and why.
A responsible parent also finds out what his or her child will benefit from the type of education that he or she is exposed to.
If all parents were to exercise that concern, then the children would not be exposed to useless forms of education.
If we allow our children to receive hopeless education, we should hold ourselves responsible for their failure to do well in life.
This is so because if we had played our part, we could have allowed them to receive the type of education that would enable them to live meaningful lives.
Good education should be practical, it should allow its students to offer practical solutions be it at their places of work or social interactions.
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