Giving Compass' Take:

• Abhishek Choudhary details the importance of parent participation with students enrolled at government schools in New Delhi. The approach he describes is one that blends the roles of home, class, school, and community to provide the best learning outcomes for their children. 

• What role does culture play in parent participation in schools, not only in India but around the world? 

• Learn about foundations in school that are supporting parent engagement in schools. 

Four years ago, when Saajha started its interventions to enable parent participation in Delhi’s government schools, there were some clear indicators of parents’ poor awareness about their local schools: approximately 78 percent of the parents did not know the name of their ward’s class teacher and more than 90 percent of them were unaware of the school principal’s name. This is pretty much the case in most government schools, even today.

The average number of school days in India is only around 150. Even with full attendance, children thus spend most of their active hours at home and in the community. It is therefore obvious that we need to redefine the role of parents from one that ends at the school gate to something more substantive.

There is enough evidence to show the significant role that parents play in their children’s education: PISA 2012 reports that regardless of the socio-economic background of households, parents ‘can help children achieve their full potential by spending some time talking and reading with them.’

Parent participation, in its truest sense, however, has the potential to contribute to teaching-learning practices,  improving school management, and enabling systemic reform.

Armed with this data, members of the School Management Committee (SMC) decided to support teachers by arranging for local volunteers to help improve the reading levels of students. While authorized school inspectors tend to be more concerned about, say, the neatness of the official register, records, files, and so on, parent ambassadors participating in the SMC focused on improving the reading levels of their children.

After working with thousands of parents and witnessing a range of parent-participation approaches, we have defined parental participation across four circles: home, class, school, and community. This encourages greater partnership based on need, interest, expertise, and availability.

Read the full article about parents participation in improving learning outcomes by Abhishek Choudhary at India Development Review.