Parent problems

Parent problems

Every teacher talks about problem with parents in some form or another and in Ghana, it is no different. My first interaction with parents was at our scheduled parent meeting with the sponsored children’s families. Our first meeting was in Nyanano on the Friday before school was set to begin. We wanted to make sure that the parents were going to support their children’s education and try to open lines of communication early so that we can work more closely with the parents during the upcoming year. We made a plan for the meeting and arrived early to prepare. After an hour and a half, not a single parent showed up. When we walked around the town to find the parents, we learned that there had been a good catch at the shore and the parents were too busy/did not remember the meeting. We decided that maybe Senya would have a better turnout on Sunday for their scheduled meeting, but similarly not a single parent showed.

It was frustrating that the children were being provided such a great opportunity to attend school for free (including clothing to wear and meals at school every day), but their parents could not take the time to attend the meeting. We rescheduled our meetings to the following weekend and this time we had more success (but not much). On Friday in Nyanyano 3/15 parents showed up, on Sunday in Fetteh 3/15 again and finally in Senya 1/30. I have to say, I was frustrated. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the parents that did show up were so positive and excited that their children will be attending school.  

Similarly to absent parents, the school attendance has also been off to a very slow start. Finally in the second week of official school we are beginning to have children in the classrooms. It is a struggle getting the children to come to school and hopefully we will have most of the kids consistently in the classroom by week three. When I am not teaching, I am often walking around the town to check on the sponsored children that are not in school. One mother we encountered was adamantly against her child going to school.  She began to make up excuses about uniforms and shoes and then about her child being beaten by teachers. Eventually, I was in the middle of a shouting match (all in Twi of course) as the school director, the mother, and about five female family members (aunt, grandma, ect) were all yelling at each other. When you do not speak the language, you get better and better at reading body language (which is also slightly different in a different culture). I learned later that the family members wanted the child to go to school and were upset at the mother (the child and family members denied any physical abuse at school and disagreed with the other excuses the mother was making to keep the kid at home). Eventually, the child followed us to school, but the mother is not very happy. Many parents do not understand the importance of education and would rather the child sit at home instead of attend an institution that they either do not understand, believe in, or trust. Many of the parents have never been to school and need help understanding the importance of education for their child.

There have been other stubborn parents, but slowly the children start to show up back at the school. We currently have about 70 children in school and are eventually expecting about twice that number. This week’s major parent issue however occurred when we were doing child trafficking interviews. Each Tuesday, the school director and I go around the town conducting interviews about the problem of child labour and trafficking. This week we interviewed a boy who was 16 years old and had just returned to Senya after working in Yeji for 8 years. That same day, we attempted to interview several parents which we have done in the past, but the parent who we wanted to talk with was convinced that we were there to arrest her for selling her children. The door was quite literally slammed in our face and all of the families on the street wanted us to leave. It is obviously very important to be delicate when using the words labour or even trafficking when trying to starting a family interview.

Even if there can be push back from the parents, the children have been simply wonderful. They are very happy to be back in school and their smiling faces and excitement in the classroom makes the difficult parents much easier to manage.