PARENTS - TEACHERS COMMUNICATION

Well before becoming a guardian to one of my siblings, I hadn't understood the meaning of following up on the status and progress of a student in the parents perspective. one thing i have come to learn and understand is that parents are often ignorant on the progress of their kids in school, only when they are approaching the final exams, be it KCPE or KCSE then we all over a sudden become concerned on their progress.
Success cannot be built in a day even Rome took days to build, so when parents start running to school to check on their children progress when they are in class eight, is this obnoxious or just ignorance. I am not trying to blame it all in parents, teachers too are to blame, in my line of duty I tend to interact with schools a lot and one thing I was shocked, I went to a school in Embakasi (wont name the school sorry), it was sad when I gave the school a system to use to alert parents on fee balances instead of sending the child home to alert the parent, please note this happens when the child is sent home:
1) the study of the child is halted and time wasted is never recoverable
2) the child feels humiliated as they feel they come from a poor family and some even give up in education especially if the parent is learned and seem not to be able to pay his/her fees.
3) some students go to do their own stuff as the parents are not aware that the child has been sent
4) Wasting bus fare, imagine a child travelling from Nakuru to Mombasa to collect school fees.
the list is endless, I just wanted to give you examples.

Back to the main story, the principal told me they do not care as it is the responsibility of the parent to ensure they have paid school fees in full and if they do not , then the kids shall be sent back home to stay with them until they clear the fees, being a culprit of such ignorance while in high school, it often felt like  I was being suspended only for not paying school fees in time.

Imagine being a parent in Nairobi, with all the daily hustles not forgetting you arrive home past Ten pm and sometimes waking up as early as Five am only to put the daily bread on the table, with such hustles how can one remember they have a fees balance.

Teachers and parents should create a communication channel, where the parent is updated on the progress of the child( I remember in high school whenever I was given mid-term exam results, I used to re configure and put up nice figures so that I do not get questions from home) whether it is continuous assessment tests or midterm exams or even final exams, with these the parent will continuously know the progress of the child. In terms of the fee balances, where the hell does the child comes in, this is something the school(teacher) and the parent should solve in the background and let the child learn smoothly with no unnecessary interruptions.

Companies like mzazi.com and Tusqee Systems, have developed programs which schools can use to communicate with parents, even what is amazing is that Tusqee provide such software for free( including training), but schools tend to ignore such products and continue to use such outdated versions of reminding parents on fees payment(sending the child home).

In Kenya which is even pathetic, the government, public even the society at large is only interested in schools is only in December when the results are being announced. We need change and total change if we are going to leave the country to the future generation, if we are going to ensure kids do not pick up smoking while in primary school, where kids study and not follow up on school fees, where parents know the first CAT the child performed poorly, let us all pray especially for teachers to be less ignorant.

My 2 cents......