Parents urged to take better responsibility for their children

Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, is asking adults in society to embrace and take good care of the future of the nation.

Jones said there is a problem in society where some adults have been careless as it relates to how they handle the responsibility of caring for their offspring, an action which sometimes leads to death.

He stressed that children should be protected by their parents, guardians and elders in society and noted that “not one child asked to be here”.
“A child is a gift of God,” he said.

“There are so many people who want children, but can’t get children. Many of them feel left out of the process of childbirth and child rearing.

“Therefore, those who are given that special gift should cherish and love those children as they cherish and love nothing else really,” Jones said.

However, the Minister warned parents that showering their children with material things is not an indication that all of their needs are being met.

“It isn’t material things that make the children, it is how you care for them, how you love them, what level of discipline you bring to them. I am not talking discipline with a stick, or a shoe, or a belt. That is not discipline; it is levels of abuse [and] brutality. But the discipline where you talk, reason and show good examples to the child,” Jones said.

The Minister of Education made these remarks, while speaking to students of the Christ Church Girls School yesterday, during morning assembly, where the Youth Explosion Band donated clipboards to 25 Class 4 students, registered to sit the 11-plus examination in May.

Minister Jones encouraged the students preparing for the national examination, to start their journey at secondary school in September, to respect the staff at the respective schools they will be placed.

He encouraged them to continue to take responsibility for pursuing academic excellence, and warned them to stay away from any unnecessary distractions they may encounter.

“I don’t want to see you become a statistic in the education sector. We want to see you grow up to be good, young women in this country,” he said.
Meanwhile, leader of Youth Explosions, Quincy Jones, advised the Class 4 students to focus on their school work, themselves and to always remember the goodness of their teachers.

He said Youth Explosion, which is celebrating ten years in 2017, will be donating clipboards to Class 4 students at two other Christ Church primary schools to assist them with their preparations for the examination. (AH)