Researcher: Basic education starts at home

 By SHIRLYN BELDEN

PARENTAL influence and home education remain the basic advantages for better citizens and quality education in the future, a research officer says. 

Medi Reta, who is a research officer with the universal basic education research programme at the National Research Institute, stressed many people or parents tended to forget that basic education for every child started in the home. 

She said the negligence of home education as the first step of learning may be a disadvantage to opportunities and structural avenues that a particular child may be a part of. 

In a statement yesterday, Reta said: “Parents have the responsibility of providing for the different needs of the child as they develop into responsible citizens. This responsibility goes a long way in supporting the child’s social growth as he or she develops further through school. 

“Children should never suffer from parental negligence of any form. 

“The quality of education and the quality of citizens that we raise depend on the kind of home and parental models that are present in our homes today.”

Reta emphasised on the importance of rearing a child in a well disciplined home where parents  provided positive influence before the child ventured out. 

Reta outlined some basic reasons that do not support positive education influence in a child: 

• A father or mother is absent most of the time because he or she is busy at work;
• A parent is upset because the other parent must attend to some extramarital commitments; and,
• One or both parents have left to socialise with friends, leaving parental responsibilities of the child to relatives, and the mother in many cases.

Reta stressed it was of utmost importance that a child should not  suffer from parental negligence of any form in order for the child to realise his potential in becoming a better person.