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Parents have a role to play in education

Given lifestyle an societal shifts, there seems to be a bit of a grey area when it comes to our roles in the education and well being of our children.

Children and parents
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This year, we had movements such as “be bold for change” and “a day without a woman” on International Women’s Day, which conveyed such strong messages about the significance of the role of women in the world. Every year, this day reminds us of the very important issues women face on a daily basis, such as adolescent marriages; unequal compensation for the same positions as men at the work place, discrimination and many other issues as far as gender equality is concerned.

These issues are real and must be addressed in order for women to enjoy fair treatment and also to ensure that the rights of young women and girls around the world are protected.

Coming down to our society in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, there seems to be a lot of focus on women beyond International Women’s Day. While, we seem to be following the global movement of female empowerment, sometimes there is a conflict between this and the domestic obligations or expectations of the Nigerian woman.

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Before the 1980s, the role of women in our society was somewhat clear; they were either homemakers or took on jobs which would enable them to leave work early enough to return home to cook, clean and take care of their children and husband, while the men took on the responsibility of working longer hours in more mainstream jobs so that they could earn enough to feed their families.

Well, we are no longer in the 1970s as things have changed, and now there seems to be a shift in the role played by the woman in the home. Now in addition to cooking, cleaning and raising children, she is expected to contribute to the household income as well.

And really, this is very much realistic due to the high cost of living in Lagos today. While this is great…it seems like we may have forgotten about a critical part of the family unit, the children. Whose responsibility is it now to take care of them, nurture their growth, ensure that they are brought up with the right values and steered in the correct moral direction? Fortunately for some, grandparents still play a key role in the lives of their grandchildren.

But what about those whose grand parents are no longer in the picture due to death, living far away or other reason? Do we leave nannies in charge or, as some will argue, do you leave it all to the schools? After all, children spend most of their non-sleeping hours of a weekday at school.

The easy answer would be “Yes, the schools should take care of everything”, and it is very tempting to agree with this given the rate of school fees charged by many of the private institutions in our society. “We pay, so much so we should get our money’s worth, and we may need to do so much in addition to that.” It is very tempting to align with this assumption also because, in addition to school fees, parents are also overworked and really do not have enough time for their children.

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On the other hand however, some parents actually do not make enough time for their children. “Do you really need to be at that social function for so many hours on a Saturday?” We do live in very challenging times and sometimes, parents really do want to get away and blow off some steam after work and during the weekends.  However, this does not mean that we should become irresponsible.

According to many researchers in the field of child psychology, only 30% of the responsibility of nurturing children lies in the hands of the school. The remaining 70% really is from the home. So in order to ensure that we get it right and our children, the future of our country, are brought up with the right values, we need to ensure that we take the steps and make the extra effort to spend more time with them because they really do need our attention.

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