Primary education: How parental engagement can propel children's learning

Proper education at the formative stages can adequately empower children for their future. This is why primary education is the bedrock for the cognitive development of a child. And with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 stressing 'quality education for all,' the significance of primary education has been strongly pronounced and highlighted across the globe. 

However, the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the state of education across the world. It was the factor behind millions of dropouts globally and has tremendously affected the already slow progress of education. 

Undeniably, the poor and lower-middle-income countries have been confronting crucial challenges to make up for these unfathomable losses caused by the pandemic. 

A report by the United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2030, around 84 million children will not attend schools and approximately 300 million children will lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. This is, indeed, an alarming message for stakeholders in the education sector, especially for parents and teachers. 

In Bangladesh, the situation is no different. 

The country has been battling hard to bring students back into classrooms since Covid-19 dismantled the education sector. Being a fundamental right and gateway to numerous facilities for an individual, imparting primary education to every child has become the apex priority of the government. 

Now, we have two broad areas to address: one is ensuring 100% enrolment of children into primary schools; two is imparting quality education, especially at the elementary level. 

Addressing such a colossal challenge requires an all-out and convergent effort from multiple stakeholders of society. Parents, teachers, learners, civil society groups and non-government organisations (NGOs) must also act alongside the government. 

When we talk about quality education and 100% enrolment at the primary level, other than teachers, the role of the parents is the most critical.

A child's guardians significantly help propel their learning. A child's first lesson is taught by their parents at home. This introductory role of parents has not declined in contemporary society but rather amplified. 

What makes this parental role even more necessary is the profound hiatus caused by the pandemic in the last two years. Now teachers are finding it an uphill task to impart education to children. This is why parental engagement in the learning process in primary schools has become more important than before. To fulfil the demands and needs of the time, bolstering parental engagement is not an option but a timely necessity. 

Several studies suggest that involving parents in children's learning can contribute to an improved attitude toward learning, increased achievements, increased social bonding and more effective learning. 

For instance, research by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has revealed that involving the most disadvantaged parents in their children's learning through regular communication with teachers can accelerate pupils' attainment by 15% and improve a child's reading age by six months.

To put simply, engagement refers to the involvement of parents and guardians in the teaching and learning process of their children. There is a huge potential for parents to play a pivotal role in enhancing children's education and its quality during the time they spend in school. For example, the parents can enquire about the progress and performance of their children in classes regularly. 

Parents should cooperate with teachers and learn how they can help their children at home. They can acquire useful insight into their children's performance by assessing their homework, test performance, scoresheet and overall evaluation reports. If the performance of their child is not up to the mark, the guardians should meet and talk to the teachers. 

In this regard, the teachers and schools should welcome the participation of the parents warmly, take the feedback and valuable suggestions carefully and reflect them in the teaching method. Rather than the traditional method of communicating with parents on certain days, teachers should pave the way for building a more meaningful two-way interaction between each other. 

Parents can play a role in building relationships with schools. To elucidate, parents will inform the schools about their child's likes, dislikes, weaknesses, strengths and other issues whereas the schools will inform the parents about the development and progress of their children.

Once the active participation of parents is established, they can constructively contribute to the children's learning process through planning, supervision and monitoring. The schools and teachers should make their opinions feel valued. 

This parent-teacher interaction must be based on shared ideals and goals: the children's academic progress. Articulating this goal is the bedrock for effective parent-teacher collaboration. 

Furthermore, the guardian assembly, including primary school teachers, the managing committee, civil society, parents and their children, can be an effective platform to share the thoughts of different parties to improve children's learning. 

By establishing an open dialogue, guardians can foster a meaningful relationship with teachers. Consequently, this type of open dialogue will bolster the trust between parents and teachers that will positively impact the learning of children.

Effective parental engagement can also be exercised at home by the parents. The parents must build a friendly relationship with their children based on affection, care and dutifulness. As Dr Janet Goodall, an educationist, remarks – effective parental engagement is all about relationships. 

Parents can show that they value the learning and schooling of children. Parents don't need to assess every minute detail and know the answer to every homework, but parents must show children that they care for their learning. It is not about knowing all the answers - it is about showing love, care, interest and nurturing a love for learning. 

For example, instead of asking children, 'What did you learn today?' parents can ask, 'Tell me three things that you learnt today'. 

In addition, to encourage creativity and imagination, parents can help their children explore, create and discover new things alongside the schools. As children in primary schools go through the formative stages, they follow and imitate the behaviour of their guardians. This presents a tremendous opportunity for parents to instil positive habits like reading, thinking outside the box, treating others kindly, attending school timely, etc. 

As children at elementary schools are imitative, parents can be ideal role models by showing a positive set of habits and behaviours. For example, if parents can demonstrate how to solve a simple mathematical problem, children can carefully learn and follow this method of solving similar problems. This learning habit leaves an indelible impact on a child's psyche. 

Finally, imparting quality primary education is one of the top priorities of the government as the country is marching to create a skilful generation through human resource development. Under such circumstances, ensuring 100% primary enrollment and quality education occupies the centre stage of our education policy. 

This policy and vision of the government will see the daylight only if primary education is provided timely, efficiently and suitably. To make this equation work, cooperation and coordination between parents and teachers are badly needed. Once these two stakeholders jointly move forward by performing their respective roles, we can dream of a brighter and better future.

Shahadat Hussein studied Development Policy at Cornell University and is currently working as an Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Kalihati, Tangail.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.