Posted in Nem MPT-s hírek, közlemények

Supporting parents to become the best primary educators

   Published Date: 2015. február 25.

April 24&25, 2015

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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the most widely ratified human rights document in the world, states that parents have the sole responsibility, basic rights and duties in giving directions and guidance to their children (Article 5). It is a big job and in most cases you are required to be ready for this job just by giving birth to or fathering a child. Of course this is an exaggeration but most parents do not get enough help and support to become real good parents although Article 18 of UNCRC obliges the states to give all support necessary to parents.
Supporting and training parents, more precisely two aspects, the substance of such training and the methods to involve as many parents as possible is a reoccurring topic. It is still not common practice that the communication between home and school, professional and parent is based on mutual needs. Timing is also often very crucial as parents work schedules tend to overlap with the schedule of events schools expect parents to be present at. There is a cultural aspect, too. Most parents replicate the role model of their own parents when communicating with the school or kindergarten – and they do not expect real involvement or to be treated as equal educators.
In the case of parents with low socio-economic status or parents of children with special needs there are more aspects to be taken into consideration. There are good practices on involving them as early on as possible to build trust and cooperation that EPA is trying to spread.
Parental involvement at school, if managed carefully by professionals, can help the parents and children alike. For many parents it has similar educational value to the education of their children to get to know people who are very different from them, to learn cooperation and thus build tolerance. EPA shares the view of many other experts and NGO’s that schools have to change to become community learning spaces, open 365 days, 6-22, that welcome all members of the community to be and learn together. In a rapidly changing world openness to learning and new things is crucial to achieve well-being for children and adults alike. Parenting is a period when you have to learn a large number of new skills to raise your children well. There is an added value of it, especially for parents from disadvantaged backgrounds, namely that these skills can become marketable, they raise employability, too. Learning together can also lead to a tolerant, open society.
EPA decided to take this topic as the focus of its first conference in the year of the 30th anniversary, a topic that has been important since EPA was funded and will remain so in the next decades.
We are looking forward to meeting you in Bucharest and hope to proceed on our personal way in Lifelong Learning.More information and preliminary programme here