26 Aug 2013

Parents must encourage their children to take education seriously as well as play an active role in the education system, Tonota South MP, Mr Pono Moatlhodi has urged.

Officiating at the Edu-Cultural event for Tonota Umbrella Parents Teachers Association (TUPTA) hosted by Mabesekwa Primary School on Saturday, Mr Moatlhodi said that way parents would be paving the future of their children.

He said parents must assist teachers in imparting knowledge to students, adding that students did not pass by miracles. Mr Moatlhodi explained that education should start at family level with the parents instilling in their children guidelines regarding the importance of education on one’s life.

Furthermore, he said although teachers spent more time with the students at the school, their main mandate was to take up the foundation set by the parents at home to produce expected results.

Over the recent years, the ministry of education had been infusing culture in the education system by including cultural activities in the curriculum. He therefore said because students came from different cultural backgrounds, parents should also take up the challenge of reviving culture by teaching their children their own culture. 

He added that by doing so, it would help students to acknowledge and share with their peers their different cultural literature. “Go back to your roots and teach your children your culture for them to appreciate the importance of having and practising it,” stressed Mr Moatlhodi, who is also deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

He nonetheless appreciated the parents of Mabesekwa for taking their children to school in large numbers. He noted that so far the school had about 500 students. However, he said a major concern was that while they took their parenting responsibilities seriously, they failed to attend PTA meetings in large numbers.

“Working together by both parents and teachers is the only way of improving the poor results of the standard seven examinations,” he stressed. Meanwhile, the director regional operations for Central district Ms Molebi Morolong, said through the annual educational cultural activities, which were held on rotational basis by schools under TUPTA in Tonota sub region, they were working to come up with a solution to the problems faced by the underperforming schools in the region.

Ms Morolong noted that through the event they meet with communities in an effort to come up with solutions to causes of poor results so that both stakeholders can be on the same platform regarding issues affecting education within their communities. She further explained that of all the 18 primary schools in the region, Mabesekwa performed below average and such results should be worrisome to all concerned parties being students, parents and educators to scrutinise themselves for a better action plan. ENDS