Issues In Education

By D. MOLEFE
O. PANSIRI &
S. WEEKS | Monday May 12, 2008 00:00

This therefore suggests that parents need to learn to communicate with and encourage their children. For children requiring remedial education the role of parents is even more critical. In 'Time and attention-every child's gift' we noted that parents needed to help their children and that it made a difference to their learning.Now a new study comparing 14 countries has some very interesting findings concerning the role of parents in their children's education. Hyunjoon Park, writing in the Comparative Education Review of May 2008, has found a positive relationship between parental involvement in their children's education and educational outcomes at school.

In 'The Varied Education Effects of Parent-Child Communication: A Comparative Study of Fourteen Countries' the author used new data available from the Programme for International Assessment (PISA). He particularly wanted to gain insight into aspects of parent-child communication as controlled by social class (socio-economic status or SES) and the type of school system (standardised versus less standardised or localised and non-standardised). Most of the previous studies on the relationship between parental support and schooling were carried out in the United States, where it was found that parental support was stronger and more favourable for children in upper SES compared to lower SES. Studies in the US also noted that lower social class parents generally lacked the experience, level of education, resources and skills to provide support to their children compared to upper SES parents (this differential reflects social capital). 'For parent-child discussions to affect the child's education parents need detailed knowledge of school processes and effective learning methods, and must be able to use that knowledge in discussions with their children'.

The author is not in full agreement with this emphasis. Parental interest, support, encouragement and enhanced motivation to learn for the child can be achieved by low SES parents who lack 'social capital', particularly in standardised education systems like in Korea or Botswana. 'Parents' interest in children's education, their frequent discussion about schooling, and their encouragement for academic success can be particularly valuable for children who lack other cultural and economic resources'.

The dichotomy between standardised and localised or non-standardised school systems the use of constant benchmarks, comparative assessment that are standardized compared to those without such universally imposed educational standards. In non-standardised systems 'It is difficult for parents to effectively talk with their children about specific educational needs'. In this context Botswana has a standardised system.

For this research the author used PISA data from a study in 2000 in 32 countries that assessed reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. It was a study of 265,000 students at 15-years of age enrolled in a variety of educational institutions. One measure used was 'frequency' of parent-child communication (three different types of communication were elicited) as an indicator of parental involvement. The limitations of the PISA data are also recognised in the article, though it is claimed it is a start in the comparative analysis of parental involvement. The 14 countries selected are in North America, Europe and Asia that were divided into seven with standardised systems and seven with open systems.

The key findings are: first, that in standardised education systems parents of low SES may have a significant impact on the learning outcomes of their children by talking to them, by discussing school books, and by talking about 'school-related issues' (in countries with non-standardised system this finding was not made for low SES parents and children); and, second, in standardised education systems, like Botswana's, 'frequent communication between parents and their children can help promote educational achievement'.

The challenge then to schools and teachers in Botswana is to make enhanced use of the parent-child report sessions held at the start of each term about the previous term's schoolwork. These sessions should not only be used to report to the parents how their child is performing in school, to discuss the report cards, but also for the teachers to find out more about how parents interact with their children, how they talk to them about their education, and what can be done to improve parent-child communication.