‘Schools that don’t allow regular parental contact aren’t keeping pace’
SURANJANA MUKHERJEE 40, homemaker
“My son moved country to country three times before turning four, and I wanted to stay in the loop with his development at school. We enrolled him at an International Baccalaureate curriculum school in Abu Dhabi, and I was wonderfully reassured with the near-daily communication with his teachers.”
“In Grade 1, when he started learning ‘choice words’, I was able to alert his teacher immediately. At other times, whenever I noticed erratic behaviours, we were able to work together to correct them. This kind of support would not have been possible for my son (in the earlier parent-teacher meets).”
‘Precocious’ is the first word I use when describing my four-yearold. Deeply interested in a range of subjects, he has long rattled off multi-syllabic words while discussing concepts like human digestion with me.
Yet, when it comes to venturing out on his own, he isn’t all that comfortable. The separation anxiety he had outgrown at eight months came back with a vengeance with the arrival of his sibling when he turned three.
So when it was time to enrol him in a school, I cannot deny that I was more
SILVANE BACHA 41, public relations executive
“My son was enrolled at a school where we could only meet with a grade supervisor via appointment, never directly with the class teacher. When my son was in Grade 1, he didn’t know the Arabic alphabet. It was a while before any of this was flagged to us.
Bacha eventually switched her son to a different British-curriculum school.
“At this new school, I can always contact his teachers via email. In fact, schools that don’t allow this aren’t really keeping pace with the demands of today’s educational environment.” anxious than most parents. I toured his new school thrice before start of term, and waited to know which class he would be assigned to so I could bring his teacher up to speed with his needs.
ZUBAIR HAIDER, 40
Marketing professional and father of two primary schoolchildren in Sharjah
“The teacher is a like psychological evaluator, they can catch learning problems early on.
“However, some parents, are
‘over protective’ and teachers can be overwhelmed by enquiries on WhatsApp groups. Some parents ask all sorts of questions, it can get stressful for the teachers. We have no issues with our schoolteachers, they are accessible and always reply to our queries. (Meetings are available on the last Thursday of every month, a dedicated school-wide parent-teacher day; a diary for messages, and special meetings by requesting the section supervisor.”
My fears were quite unfounded, and given the school’s open-door policy towards parents, rather excessive.
Not only were parents like me encouraged to attend the first week of
MOHAMMAD OMAR 43, lawyer in Dubai, two children in primary school
“The only time I’m free to see the teachers is when dropping off and picking up my children. The teachers only arrive a short while before classes start and, after the school day ends, they’re busy with extra-curricular clubs. There’s not enough time for a proper talk.
“We only get one parent-teacher day a semester and the line is long to see the teacher, who only has 10 or 15 minutes per parent.
“However, teachers are reachable over email and they are ‘efficient’ in getting back. We don’t have WhatsApp groups, those can get counterproductive for parents and teachers.”
school, I was also given easy access to the classroom every single day, even beyond the first month. I also saw groups of parents attending the daily morning assembly. The homeroom teachers never refused to speak with me, even during the school hours, if urgent.
What was more impressive was that my son’s homeroom teacher responded to my concerns on the classroom communication application during the school day. On days when my son was a little unsettled, this interaction provided the much-needed reassurance.
I am yet to attend the monthly coffee mornings for parents, or the many family events. But it’s been more than a month after the start of the school term, and I am delighted that parent-teacher interactions have progressed so much.
I won’t have to be rudely surprised to hear at the end of a school term that my son could be doing better. I can actively work with him every day to fine-tune his knowledge of carbs and proteins, dinosaurs and robots, or any new thing he takes a fancy to. Sounds like a winwin to me all the way.