Parental insights to help schools understand students’ behaviour

Understanding students' behaviour and psychology is an efficient way to deal with students, and parents want to extend their help to the state education department for the same. Parents claim they know their children's behavioural patterns and want to share this information with schools so that it comes in handy for teachers while tackling classroom issues.

Most times, students pose behavioural challenges, which get in the way of classroom learning, teachers lament. Some students are slow to learn, while others are quick learners. Some students have a short attention span, while others have a photographic memory but find it hard to grasp oral lessons.

Parents claim they observe their children’s behaviour at home and would like to provide this information to teachers. Parent Siddharth Janarde says, “At home, children often tend to show behavioural changes as they spend more time at home than school. As parents, we can come up with various basic remedies to tackle these changes at the ground level. If we get a chance to interact directly with teachers, we can share this information and teachers can then use it as and if needed, in a classroom or school environment.”

Large class strengths make it tough to deal with each and every student. Priya Rathod, a teacher, says, “In goverment-aided schools, we teach and cater to around 40 to 60 students at a time. It becomes difficult to understand each and every student’s behaviour and psychology and it would be great if parents could help us understand students in a broader way.”

In order to increase parental involvement, the state education ministry is planning to set up a school management committee (SMC) in government-aided city schools. The SMC will create a common platform, where parents and teachers can meet twice a month or once a week, to discuss students' issues, behaviour, difficulties and psychological patterns.

Also, this will create transparency when it comes to school learning and home learning, as parents will get a clear picture of what is taught in school. According to a senior officer from the state education department, “SMC will bridge the gap and help parents understand school activities better. It will also help teachers to understand each and every student efficiently and thus enhance the method of individual approach.”

School authorities mention they want to provide a holistic environment for growth and the overall development of students. The principal of a school said, “We want our students to enjoy education through an interactive and interesting way of learning. A student-teacher relation is the need of the hour so we want to take efforts to build it.”

Most times, students pose behavioural challenges, which get in the way of classroom learning, teachers lament. Some students are slow to learn, while others are quick learners

At home, children often tend to show behavioural changes as they spend more time at home than school

Parents claim they observe their children’s behaviour at home and would like to provide this information to teachers