Evolution and education have a critical, symbiotic relationship. As we evolve as individuals and as societies, our education system and teaching methodologies need to keep pace, innovating in sync with the changing times and needs. Our schools, educators, and teachers recognize this fact and are constantly evolving not just their pedagogy, but the entire teaching-learning environment to respond to these dynamic demands and create the best fit that promotes maximum learning and growth and helps build a bright and successful future for their students.
However, with innovation and change, challenges always follow. One of such challenges is the conundrum about the involvement of parents. When schools and educators introduce various kinds of initiatives to promote better, modern learning, sometimes parents struggle to understand and cope with the new systems. It is easy to put the onus of a child’s entire learning on the schools and teachers but the fact remains that parents need to understand and be aligned with the learning methodologies and school initiatives in order to cooperate with the schools and become an effective ally for the child in their growth and development.
The modern school system requires parents to be equal and agile cogs in the wheel of a child’s learning journey. They need to not just be present every step of the way but also understand, engage and contribute. And while teachers, parents, and school management largely understand this and are willing to make it happen, it continues to be a challenge in terms of how to make it effective and translate it into a workable model.
The Challenge
The ecosystem of a child’s growth and learning cannot be complete unless parents are involved and engaged to the absolute extent. Mostly because parents are the ones who spend the most amount of time with the child, and have a disproportionate influence on the kind of organic learnings and values the students imbibe and inculcate. For the learning ecosystem to be holistic, parents need to be aligned and in sync with the school’s teaching methodology, approach, value systems, and initiatives to ensure the child’s growth is harmonious, consistent, and whole.
The challenge is that so much has changed over the past few years that all the stakeholders have found themselves scrambling to keep abreast. Much more so the parents who have suddenly found themselves in this whole new system that is unlike anything they had seen as students, and where they are expected to participate to make the whole thing work. It is not easy. The schools need to understand this difficulty and create systems and models to support, align, inform and educate the parents. And the schools need to do so in a manner that is more subtle and nuanced so that the parents are more receptive to being educated.
The Solution
At Schoolpad, over the years, we have witnessed schools realizing the need for educating the parents and deploying innovative methods to get the outcomes. And while more and more schools are encouragingly joining this bandwagon, it continues to remain a rather ahead-of-the-times idea that has not gained as much traction as it needs to. Perhaps because even when schools understand the need to educate parents, they struggle with finding the right ways to do it. Based on our experience and interaction with some of the schools that have been able to figure out creative and interesting ways and models to keep parents involved and educated, below are some ideas that are brilliant in terms of strategy and outcome.
Also Read: Why It Is Important For Schools To Keep Parents Aligned With Their Children’s Planes of Development
Cartoons and Animations – Some of the best parent-education models come from schools that effectively use a mobile app environment to deploy interactive tools like animated cartoons revolving around themes like hygiene and grooming. Simple, engaging, and highly effective, using animation, cartoons and even cartoon strips can be a great way to raise awareness and educate parents.
Dedicated Pages and Forums – To keep parents engaged on a continuous basis, several schools have a dedicated page where they upload
Surveys and Polls– Using intelligently crafted surveys and polls around specific themes like health and hygiene (questions like how often do you wash your kid’s bag?; how many glasses of water does the kid drink per day?) is a great way to indirectly raise awareness and making parents think without being preachy.
Newsletters – Regular newsletters that not only inform and educate but also provide a dedicated space for parents to share their experiences and learning through articles and letters is a great way to not only educate but also create a sense of belongingness among the parents.
These are just some of the ideas and models that we have seen create a great impact. But this is by no means an exhaustive list, and we are sure that there are many more innovative ways that schools can use to align and educate the parents. What is important here is to remember that even though this idea seems ahead of its time, it is in fact the need of the hour, and it is an essential prerogative of the school management to take the first step in the right direction.
Want to learn more about how you can use Schoolpad to educate parents? Want Schoolpad to be a partner in your school’s growth story? Please feel free to get in touch with us at connect@schoolpad.in . You can also click on the request a demo link and one of our coaches will get in touch with you.
