Parents don’t have time for home teaching duties, say couriermail.com.au readers in response to a story on state reform designed to improve results.
Others say that many parents don’t have sufficient numeracy and literacy skills to pass on to their children.
However, Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek does not believe it is too much to ask for parents to get more involved in their children’s schooling.
The Minister was responding to an article in The Courier Mail saying that parents would be asked to teach their children literacy and numeracy at home.
“The more we can at least aim for it instead of what’s happened over the last few years which is handing everything over to schools and saying you’re responsible for everything means children aren’t getting the great results they could get if their parents were involved,” said Mr Langbroek.
“It’s not necessarily making sure that they’re teaching brand new concepts to their children, but making sure they’re reinforcing the things that (students) are being taught at school.”
Earlier it was reported, MUMS and dads will be asked to teach their children literacy and numeracy at home under a state reform designed to improve student results.
Parents will be called on to play a bigger role in education under new instructions from Education Queensland to schools.
The move is recognition of research showing children learn much more from their parents than their teachers.
Parent body P&Cs Qld welcomes the idea, saying “it is the parent’s responsibility to be the educator”.
Principals are also supportive, saying the idea would counter the shift in responsibility from parents to schools.
Under the instructional framework, state schools are being told to consider running training and developmental courses for parents and to invite them in as guest teachers.
Other initiatives include setting practical literacy and numeracy activities that involve parents, providing parent literacy and numeracy workshops and sending staff into homes to explain the jargon used in schools.
“Parents and the broader community play a vital role in supporting successful learning outcomes for our children,” the framework states.
It says a key marker of success will be parents being acknowledged as the first teachers of their children.
Some schools, including Redbank Plains and Glenala state high schools, have already demonstrated remarkable improvements in student results.
Queensland Teachers’ Union president Kevin Bates said the framework was about “valuing parents as part of the education process”, not just telling them about it.
“It has got huge merit and it has got merit because what it recognises is that education doesn’t just take place in school,” Mr Bates said.
He said research showed school was responsible for about 20 per cent of a child’s learning, family about 40 per cent and social about 40 per cent.
“In that sort of a situation we have to realise that clearly schools can do a lot, but they can’t do it all,” he said.
EQ deputy director-general Lyn McKenzie said the new framework was about turning “good schools into great schools”. She said the teachers would not be doing less.
“It is about how can we help the parent add value to their child,” Ms McKenzie said.
“Unless we work with the families in helping them understand how to assist their child in their learning then it will be more difficult to go from good to great schools.”
Qld P&Cs CEO Peter Levett said the group backed the framework. “It can be as simple as reading to your child or asking them at the end of the day how school went,” Mr Levett said.
“It comes back to … that parents are the first teachers of their children and that responsibility continues throughout your child’s education.
“Obviously there are parents that are time poor (but) it is the parent’s responsibility to be the educator and that is not taking away from what the school is doing, it is adding to it.”
Queensland Association of State School Principals president Hilary Backus agreed.
“Over the last 15 to 20 years there has been a massive shift to schools being asked to be responsible for elements such as teaching your child to swim, sex education and behaviour, which previously were clearly the responsibility and domain of parents,” Mrs Backus said.
She said parents without a good education could make a difference by demonstrating they valued learning.
By Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail
Source: Herald Sun – http://goo.gl/KmVfl
