DON’T PLAY BLAME GAME
TAKE INITIATIVE FOR CHILDREN’S SAKE Alisi Daurewa advises being more involved in school education
that’s called taking responsibility. Because those books were to have been used by the incoming students. Which will save money for the school budget and not unnecessarily burden other parents and guardians who must now fundraise to replace those damaged/ missing textbooks because the Ministry of Education is not going to cover for your (and your child’S) irresponsibility.
2. eTransport cards.
Make the effort. Find out what you must do. You don’t wait till your child has started school for eTransport card for school transport. You should have begun during the third term of the previous year. Or make it a priority over preparations for Christmas.
3. Teacher appointments.
My sons attended Catholic schools. I have come across groggy Catholic teachers, non-performing ones. I have encountered Catholic teachers who abused the boys. Furthermore, along with some concerned mothers, we helped get rid of a Catholic teacher alleged to have sexually abused some boys.
(And I happened to know of a prestigious indigenous all-boys boarding school where the Principal repeatedly beat up his wife in full view of the boys. Not sure how this was addressed).
Let me share some of my many personal stories though with regards to school.
Story My sons were not perfect students. Like the evening we turned up at one of those end-of-term Teacher-Parent interviews at a secondary school, and were shocked to learn that our hope spent more time out of school than at school. But like many parents we never gave up.
Story 2: At the end of a school year - since our oldest son was a 10-yearold in Year 5, he had to annually (till 6th form) make a list of his brothers’ school needs. And then he had to conduct a cost-benefit analysis around Suva to finally present us with the best shop to buy a certain school item from – uniform, sandals, bags, stationery etc. Some of these items were their presents for Christmas.
Story 3: Mothers Club was not just about monitoring what the shop was feeding our children. We were also concerned about safety issues and quality of teaching. For example, my husband (RIP) was the President of the PTA for some time. When he didn’t raise our mothers’ club concern with allegations of sexual abuse against a Senior Catholic teacher, I questioned him at the annual PTA. The rest they say is history.
So, like other parents and guardians, as long as the children did well at school and were taught by teachers who didn’t have the morals of an alley cat (as my late aunt and namesake would say), that for me was a good teacher, or reflective of good leadership by the Principal and PTA.
I didn’t and still don’t care about their blooming race. Neither their religion.
Lesson learnt: Get interested. Be close to your child’s teacher. Use your school PTA if you cannot get through the teachers. If all else fails, visit the Ministry of Education. Spend more time in the school than other social activities.
But be honest. Do some self reflection. And for goodness sake, stop playing the victim. It’s boring. And we’re breeding a society of increasing dependents. Pathetic!!!