As the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a storm to the world, Nepal is not left behind. Though officially, in comparison to the global statistics, there are less Covid-19 cases in Nepal, the country has taken fundamental measures to control the virus. One of such major steps that Nepal has taken was the introduction of nationwide lockdown. After more than two months of staying inside homes and accepting the new normal, Covid-19 has changed the way we function our day-to-day life. We have started working from home, combining it with the daily household chores and equally sharing the time with family members and most importantly, children. As all the schools are currently closed and the children are staying home, the parents are struggling to manage their time between their work from the home schedule and children’s development.
With the help of available technologies, many schools in Kathmandu have started online classes. This new hectic routine has not only challenged the management skills of the parents but has challenged them in terms of keeping track of their children’s education, making them accustomed to this new pedagogical process. At the same time, it has compelled them, and other stakeholders, to rethink parents’ role in children’s learning.
Of course, education starts at home. From the home, the children receive their first and most basic learnings – be they social, emotional, intellectual or educational. However, due to the hectic schedule and the run for the bread and butter on the parents’ part, there is a growing possibility that the parents are sacrificing their child’s development and completely leaving their future independently on the hands of a structured educational system. Furthermore, such dependency will only teach students to value to the schools they go to, the marks they obtain and the professional expertise they acquire in the future. It makes the learning process more robotic.
The schools by testing and evaluating students match their talents, skills and capacities to the jobs for which they are best suited. The schools, therefore, are seen as a major mechanism for role allocation. Somehow, parents also have started believing and accepting that after primary socialisation within the family, the school takes over as the focal socialising agency. The schools act as a bridge between family and society, preparing children for their adult roles in society.
The current way
So, the burning issue is if the parents are doing enough in supporting their children in their academic and social endeavours, further preparing them not only for the job market but also nurturing their creativity and intelligence.
The function of education in today’s capitalist societies is taken as a process of reproduction of labour-power. Education is merely seen as a system subservient to and performing functions for the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class who own the means of production. The bourgeoisie requires a hardworking workforce that accepts authority, without any fuss if they are exploited. A major function of schools in such societies is to indoctrinate children into these norms and values. The education system does this through the hidden curriculum – which consists of the things pupils learn through the experience of attending school, rather than the stated objectives in the ‘formal curriculum’.
Producing the generation of enablers
Hence, Covid-19 has given us an opportunity to rethink the perspective of education and its long-term plans, as well as, the role of the parents in the growth of their children. The parents’ participation is not something which a good school regards as a desirable “extra”, but a necessity. It will not survive as an attitude imposed upon a school or as something to be tried occasionally but must become an integral and regular part of the educational philosophy of administrators, teachers and parents.
Furthermore, staying home with the children during this pandemic has provided an opportunity for the parents to explore the innovative approaches and get engaged in their intellectual, emotional and educational pursuance. The children can also be engaged in unstructured learning without any curriculum to follow, further learning life lessons of exploration, life skills, experiments, which are fundamental components of a self-motivated learning process. This is also a chance for the parents to learn about their children’s ability and know more about their passion and understand their competence beyond earning a degree and performing better in examinations. As children learn best from who they admire, love and respect, parents have an opportunity to create a strong bond with their children and indulge in their learning process.
At a broader level, the requirement of the nation is to create the citizens who acquire the skills to be resilient and who can change the world into a much better place by developing essential skills to navigate and solve issues like Covid-19 and climate change. It is, therefore, important to have the new generation who have the mindset and power to work collaboratively. Rather than just factory-producing children through schools and preparing them for this capitalistic world, some of the most important skills that employers will be looking for will be creativity, communication and collaboration, alongside empathy and emotional intelligence, and being able to work across lines of differences to harness the power of the collective through effective teamwork. In this entire innovative process, the parents have a very crucial role to play and have the responsibility to shape the generations to come.
Rai is currently pursuing MPhil at the Department of Development Education at Kathmandu University School of Education.
