NPTAJ president says strong PTA support will lead to strong school leadership

WESTERN BUREAU:

Stewart Jacobs, the president of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ), says strong support from the nation’s parent-teacher associations (PTAs) is crucial in assisting the principals of schools to provide effective leadership, which is critical in guiding the educational development of the nation’s children.

Speaking with The Gleaner on Thursday, Jacobs said parents are more likely to support their schools’ PTA bodies if they hold the principals in high regard while noting that support tends to be stronger among traditional schools and schools in rural areas.

“If a principal is engaging with the parents, you will find that there is more partnering with the school and the PTA. It comes down to the leadership a lot of times. If the school administration encourages a certain type of harmony, then it catapults into strong PTA participation,” said Jacobs.

“We find that the traditional high schools and the more established primary schools give quite a bit of support to their schools’ PTA while in the nontraditional schools, it is not as robust as we would want it to be. In deep-rural communities, the PTA is revered and the principals are embracing of it. So again, it comes down to the leadership style and efficiency of the school which will encourage it,” he added.

Parent absenteeism has been negatively impacting PTA bodies for several years. In 2008, the NPTAJ estimated the average islandwide attendance as less than 50 per cent. In 2015, then-NPTAJ President Everton Hannam said that while the first PTA meeting of each school year sees a substantial turnout, attendance generally declines as the year progresses.

Jacobs suggested that some parents do not attend PTA meetings regularly or at all because they do not see the benefits of attending, especially because of the financial sacrifice involved and poor family dynamics in the home.

PTA PARTICIPATION

“For the most part, there is PTA participation from the parents, but sometimes it is like pulling teeth because the first thing to do is to engage them, and engagement is about answering the question, ‘What are you going to do for my little Johnny or my little Mary while they are in school?’ For some parents, the money they spend to come to PTA meetings is the money they would be using for their child tomorrow morning, so it is a sacrifice for them to come,” said Jacobs.

“Sometimes one parent comes to the meeting, and the other parent also comes, but they sit far apart from each other, or both of them just cannot be bothered, and the child suffers because none of them comes to the meeting. Also, parents may have a problem with the principal or teacher and they are grumbling in earshot of the child, who comes back and acts it out,” continued Jacobs. “The school and the parents must be together for one main reason: the education and well-being of the child.”

The issue of parental involvement, or lack thereof, in children’s school lives has arisen multiple times over the years, most recently following an operation by the St Catherine North Police to address loitering by students in Spanish Town. At that time, the Jamaica Association of Principals and Vice-Principals identified inadequate parenting, lack of interest in formal education, and the shift system as contributing factors to loitering and truancy among students.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com