Parents urged not to cede responsibility of their wards to teachers

The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Nana Adjei Boateng, has asked parents not to cede the responsibility of mentoring their wards solely to teachers.

He said by doing so, “they would robbing their children of a crucial element in their development process.”

He said teaching was not only “about educating children to be lettered” but moulding them to develop socially upright morals and inculcating in them sound religious doctrines.

“Unless parents assist in that task, the child would be robed of other elements in the developmental processes”.

Addressing the 20th anniversary speech and prize giving day of the Assemblies of God Schools in Koforidua, Nana Adjei Boateng appealed to parents, particularly fathers, to show more enthusiasm in the educational needs of their wards.

He expressed his unhappiness about the “worrying pattern of fathers, either refusing to attend school programmes or showing little concern about the academic progress of their wards”.

The MCE said the new educational policy would remain a mere paper work, unless it was given expression by all the parties involved, noting that, the lack of enthusiasm by some parents in the academic pursuits of their wards thwarts efforts to help scale up standards.

He called for a collaborate effort, comprising the government, parents and school authorities on how best to advance the needs of the child to enable them to develop “holistically and become meaningful participants in society's workings”.

The Greater Accra Regional Manager of the Presbyterian Education Unit, Miss Beatrice Bernice Boateng, blamed the current surge in “criminal activities by minors on the failure of parents to groom and guard their wards against waywardness.”

She said many parents were now gripped with an allure for material wealth to the extent that they sacrificed the future of their wards for that cause.

Miss Boateng pleaded with parents to de-emphasize the quest for money and spare some time with their children and help develop them into useful adults.

The Eastern Regional Superintendent of the Assemblies of God church, the Reverend Alex Ofori, said efforts were being made to inculcate God fearing principles into the students to help them become patriotic citizens.

Mrs Christiana Agbetie, Headmistress of the school, said “her institution had been able to carve an enviable niche for itself within the past 20 years” and was now regarded as one of the best private schools in the region with a bias in moral development as well as academic excellence.