It’s true that parental expectations are crucial to the general academic performance of school children.
Parents are indeed the absolute key to enhancing learners’ self-efficacy, self-esteem, intrinsic motivation, and reduction of stress and anxiety.
A child requires continuous parental guidance at the early stages of development. The parents act as a guiding light during these very preliminary phases of life.
When this light dims at any stage of life, poor mental, academic and psychological development are grossly affected.
Intrinsic motivation is normally nudged by parents, who gradually provoke and motivate the extrinsic faculties of a person.The extrinsic and intrinsic factors are forced to blend and end up working intermittently.
Most parents have never realised they play a key role in their Children’s general guidance.
Some children have been abdicated to their peers. This becomes a meaningful platform to shape their character and performance according to what they see or imagine. At this point, the behaviour and performance of the learners will be determined by the nature of the peers’ character they come in contact with.
If the peer group they come in contact with is made up of difficult learners who may be social misfits, the child will certainly follow in their footsteps.
The child’s mind is like a clear and clean sheet of paper with all the readiness to copy anything and assimilate it.
Even in class, imitation is a way of adapting new ideas. Learners copy favourite celebrities’ behaviour, including walking, eating, talking, dancing, and many other aspects they consider good.
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Why should parents fail to guide their own children and expect them to perform and behave well?
Learners whose parents actively get involved in regular school matters have better attendance and sound behaviour towards school matters.
Learners tend to perform better when they have supportive and engaged parents, and such learners develop higher educational aspirations. Diverse forms of parental involvement include providing materials, supporting home learning, communicating, and setting goals.
As parents invest in their children’s energy and resources, higher educational expectations are realised.
This would create a favourable learning atmosphere conducive to improved academic performance.
Instead of creating turbulence and disharmony in the school environment, parents should take the lead in nurturing and mentoring their children so that good performance can be realised.
Let the parents not make teachers a punching bag by discussing possible inefficiencies that they witness in the learning environment.
Learners will first refuse to respect the teachers, which will definitely lead to a lack of mastery of the subject content, which will eventually lead to failure.
Teachers captivate learners by creating a conducive learning environment full of teaching and learning materials.
However, it’s also counterproductive for parents to get excessively involved in their children’s matters since this will completely hinder their children’s independence, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
This can also lead to a lack of self-confidence and self-reliance in children as they advance to old age.
Parental involvement immensely motivates children to get actively involved in learning, leading to higher learning outcomes.
The best inheritance a parent can give to a child is creating the best possible education opportunity, where learning can thrive and be translated into good outcomes.
By Hillary Muhalya
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