Moral and Behavioral Training, a Parent-Teacher responsibility

By Michael Nartey, Human Resource Manager

All Public and some Private Basic Schools have reopened for the academic year to begin. A Semester System is now being observed at all levels and both parents and students are now adjusting to it.

It is expected that students and teachers at all levels will work together for a successful academic year.

Tertiary students are earnestly and frantically preparing to move into the various campuses to begin the year. Parents are in this regard faced with the daunting task of seeking accommodation for both fresh and continuing students in the colleges and those in the Tertiary institutions.

This requires a lot of time and financial commitments coupled with a lot of stress on parents and guardians.

What is more frustrating is that the Estate Departments of most of these Universities tag applications for traditional Halls and other lodging facilities of residence to the opening of portals.

The lucky ones who may have links end up getting the facility at a very exorbitant fee thereby aggravating the already precarious financial difficulties on parents.

Students who are unable to secure housing facilities on campuses of their institutions of learning end up seeking other available housing facilities outside their schools which could be closer or further away. At worst, other students commute from home daily to lectures.

What parents expect in return is hard work and good academic results. This can be achieved when students apply themselves to the tenets of education from all levels of our institutions of learning. They can achieve that only when they become disciplined and exhibit a high sense of responsibility.

These two most important ingredients cannot be given by teachers alone. Parents also have a role to play. As it is said, charity begins at home and this goes to reflect in the way and manner students behave while at school. When caregivers, guardians and parents teach their wards how to behave well, they demonstrate that wherever they go including while at school.

Such students do not engage in unnecessary confrontation with school authorities, avoid the intake of alcohol, abuse of drugs, thievery of items and monies of their colleagues and the stealing of college reference books and documents with impunity. Well trained students also avoid occultism and try their best not to be truants. Teachers on the other hand have the biggest role to play in this regard.

Broadly speaking, the function of teachers is to help students learn by imparting knowledge to them and by setting up a situation in which students can and will learn effectively. But teachers fill a complex set of roles, which vary from one society to another and from one educational level to another.

Teachers play an essential role in education, most especially in the lives of the students they teach in the classroom. What defines a teacher is his/her ability to teach students and a positive influence on them. Shaping a child’s social development therefore falls on the teacher, who takes on the role of Mediator and Coach. The role of teachers in education extends past the responsibility of passing along information. As the name suggests, the primary function of the teacher includes teaching a variety of facts and skills to students. Teachers also fulfill a child’s need for a positive role model when the family fails to provide one.

A crucial role of the teacher in education consists of evaluating, assessing and providing for children with special circumstances. This is why we urge teachers, whether in public or private educational institutions not to rest on their oars because the future of their students lies on their shoulders and they have no reason to fail them.

While encouraging teachers to give off their best, parents must also ensure that their wards have all the necessary logistics they require to make learning easy.

Government on the other hand has the bigger responsibility of ensuring that both the student and the teacher lack nothing on their journey towards a smooth academic year.