Poor parenting contributing to low online schooling attendance

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Gleaner editorial of May 10, titled ‘Mass mobilisation for education’, said that there was nothing particularly revelatory in Minister Fayval Williams’ declaration that 120,000 students have fallen out of the education system in the year or so since face-to-face classes were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was already known that limited or no access to digital devices and/or the affordability of Internet services had kept large swathes of students, particularly those from poor families, from logging on to alternative online classes. Poor parenting is the major contributing factor to the more than 120,000 students that are unaccounted for.

In my community alone, they are many students who have gadgets, can access WiFi, and still were not logging on to online classes. These students’ parents were too busy working or otherwise occupied to monitor their children’s online schooling. A mere recipe for disaster, and the major summer school programme that is now in effect is not by any means a solution. The remedial intervention need to starts at the community level by engaging the parents through various parenting programmes, even offering these parent incentives, food packages, monetary aid, grants and scholarships to assist them, especially single parents who need the support.

It would appear that lots of students have opted out of the education system. But I will further assert to you that the very same children are engaged in online gaming. They set up in groups day and night and play games. They are mainly boys who hardly sleep, are unsupervised at home and have access to the Internet and gadgets all day and all night.

So, as much as the education system, teachers and the relevant stakeholders are doing, to have these students engaged, it is hard-reaching, especially, if they don’t get to the root of the issues, which is poor parenting skills. And this must be tackled and with urgency too. The article delved deeper in the actual issue I am addressing. The writer outlined that there is a need for an aggressive push into communities to dig out these students. A system akin to the contact tracing for COVID-19 needs to be implemented to find the missing children and to engage their parents and guardians on how best to get their education back on track. In other words, the response to this crisis is mass mobilisation at the community level, which must include conversations with the community members on how to maintain and improve education in the midst of a pandemic. All must be on board to save our children from illiteracy, poverty, gangs, crime and violence.

Where I live, most people turn a blind eye to the crisis of students dodging online classes. The repercussions are going to be seen in the near future when these very children turn to crime and become teenage parents and young adults that are wreaking havoc in the communities. The very people who are turning a blind eye now are going to be calling on government and police for help. I want to ‘nip it in the bud’ from now and find amicable solutions. These solutions are geared towards helping our children, single parents, and those who are struggling and poverty-stricken, to be empowered enough to value education and invest in their children’s schooling and development positively today, and reap benefits in the future.

KAREN MCFARLANE