In-School Productivity Campaign | Parents, teachers key agents of productivity

Since the start of 2018, the Jamaica Productivity Centre started a partnership with The Gleaner and LASCO Distributors to enhance the learning experience of students by introducing them to productivity tools and concepts.

Prior to each productivity sensitisation session, students identified several habits that we recognised could be potential barriers to improved student performance. These include: not having a social timetable, not knowing how to study, exam anxiety, and not understanding the real importance of school and rules. The feedback over the past three months from the students following their engagement has been encouraging. With the campaign roll-out, we recognise the importance of constant support and guidance for students to stay positively engaged.

The recognition of the need for constant reinforcement of productive behaviours with our students has informed the second phase of our campaign, which is to engage, educate and train the persons that have the most contact and influence over them. Outside of their peers, the family and teachers are the main agents for primary socialisation, or, simply put, family, friends, teachers and community members have the most foreseeable influence on our youth. Hence, we have decided to focus the month of April on training the trainers! For this month, we will interact with teachers, community members and parents to ensure that they understand the importance of instilling productive behaviours in their own lives and that of our children.

I must say a personal thanks to Miss Colette Gooden, children's officer at the Child Development Agency, for allowing us to be a part of their parenting session addressing the topic of effective communication. Our focus was to impress upon the parents the importance of maintaining a healthy and open relationship with their children, which can be achieved through regular communication. We spoke of the importance of remaining a person of importance and relevance within the child's life and someone they can trust and feel free to speak to on all matters.

Parents were prompted to share best practices among themselves as well as to highlight instances that resorting to means of harsh punishment resulted in deterioration of the parent-child relationship, while also failing to address in the long term the issue at hand. Participating parents expressed how helpful they believed this session was and what recommendations they plan to adopt and apply to the communication issues between them and their child.

We left some general tips and suggestions as a guide:

Have at least 30 minutes per day that is dedicated to one-on-one parent-child talk. During this time there should be no distractions, e.g., no TV or phone interruptions.

Allow your child to feel and know that time with them is more important than anything or anyone else.

Your child feeling valued goes a long way in developing and maintaining a healthy relationship.

At the end of the week, write the things you liked and disliked about the way your child operated, and allow your child to create a similar list. Discuss it between or among yourselves and explain the reason behind certain actions, and work on adjusting where necessary.

Attempt to go through a week without shouting at or reprimanding/punishing your child. Surprise your child with a calm talk about something they did wrong. If we hope to make an impact on a child's behaviour, we must first earn their respect.

Our youth are the key to impacting our world over time. However, if we are to successfully reach them and instil positive values in them, we must have the support of the adults that are placed in positions of authority.

- Sashelle Gooden is senior communications specialist at the Jamaican Productivity Centre.