Some parents not taking their role seriously

IT appears that a number of Barbadian parents are neglecting their parental responsibilities and their lack of guidance is manifesting at the level of the school system.

Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, recently commented that there are a number of parents who seem not to be taking their role seriously. His comments came in the House of Assembly, during debate on the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

“I am concerned that too many parents in our society are not taking their roles as parents very seriously. So when you have a child in the school system for example, who walks through the gate and doesn’t say good morning to a teacher, shows little respect for adults in the school environment, I greatly suspect that that child is an ill-mannered child at home because a child who gets up on mornings and says good morning to his mother or father or adults in the household, is most likely to conduct him or herself in a similar manner when (he or she) enters into the school system,” Inniss pointed out.

“A child who is taught and who is guided at home that you have to take responsibility for your actions, is a child who, when he enters the school system, will also take responsibility for his or her actions. A child who is taught at home not to resolve disputes by acts of violence, by grabbing a knife or cutlass or big rock or cursing, is a child who, when (he or she) enters the school system, will not resolve disputes in a violent manner. So I am not making the point that our school system is perfect, perhaps it is a microcosm of what is happening within the wider society and therefore, any call for us to address these issues must be well placed within a call for a national dialogue on how children are being raised today,” Inniss maintained.

He meanwhile suggested that the majority of young people in the country are “decent, law abiding and honest”, and it is only a small grouping that is being looked at, with a view that their behaviour is reflective of what is happening in the larger society. (RSM)