Nepali parents often complain that their children do not show interest in their studies. Teachers give a lot of homework, and the parents manage or search for teachers for home tuition for their children. Again, there is hardly any success. But, if they realise their own role in children’s education, half of the problem can be solved.
Complaining Nepali parents
Many Nepali parents blame the internet, social media, and online games for children’s lack of interest in education. The parents think mobile phones or tabs are the culprits, but cannot control the access of the children to them. In fact, electronic gadgets have been the children’s priority over anything else for gifts from their parents or relatives.
Some parents complain to the school administration about the little homework given to their children. Some teachers who believe in the traditional way of teaching also think that homework helps their students learn more and better. However, both the Nepali parents and the teachers are found to be frustrated with the children’s lack of interest in their studies. They are worried and keep asking this question to each other: How can we solve this problem?
Though it is not a new idea, a simple but often forgotten or neglected fact is that children learn from their elders, at home or at school. The teachers and the parents must not forget that the children take them as their role models. If we realise this simple fact, there is an easy solution to some extent for the problem mentioned above.
Their contribution
Both Nepali parents and teachers must now understand that homework is not the solution to their problem. It rather increases the children’s lack of interest in reading. Moreover, they are deprived of their natural physical demand for play which is important for their physical and mental growth. The parents and the teachers are unknowingly committing this crime against their children.
We often hear a lot about the teachers’ responsibilities for their students’ intellectual and emotional growth. But, we have rarely discussed in our context the reality that parents can also harm their children and interrupt their healthy growth. In fact, parents are no less responsible than teachers in inculcating the habit of reading in their children.
As a teacher, I have observed for more than a decade that children whose parents are educated and spend some quality time with them every day are better at studying than their peers who do not have this situation. I have found that children who have seen their parents reading books at home have a greater interest in reading and writing. They have also good academic performance and are happy in classrooms
Problem with Nepali parents
However, our problem is that most Nepali parents are either uneducated or extremely busy so they cannot give their time to their children. Many children are living with their single parents who cannot create a good situation for their children at home. Some parents, on the other hand, openly reject the idea of reading in front of their children. They laugh and say, “What’s the use of admitting them to expensive schools and paying fees if I have to read for them?”
I often meet parents who think Saturday is the most terrible day of the week just because their children remain at home the whole day. However, their worry is not about their children’s studies; it is just because they will have to give them time. It is a bitter reality that many parents prefer spending their free time playing ludo, making TikTok videos, or indulging themselves in social media to reading for or with their children even if they are capable of that. They seem to have forgotten that home is the first school of a child. Home is the place where a child learns social and behavioural skills which the schools and the teachers may not have enough time to or cannot teach to the children.
According to data published by UNESCO, almost half the adult women (55.11 per cent) in Nepal are illiterate. The mothers spend more time with their children at home because only 22.5 per cent of them work outside the home. It means mothers have greater importance for their children’s education in Nepal. Unfortunately, they are unable to help the children in their studies due to a lack of their own education.
A child feels neglected or thrown away when the parents tell him or her to read and do homework, or to go to another room, while the parents are enjoying themselves watching YouTube or using social media. The children are easily distracted and discouraged from their studies in this kind of situation. At least, Nepali parents must have some amount of patience to spend quality time with their children and listen to them
Reading to the child is a great way of helping them increase their interest in their studies. It impacts positively their language, literacy, and intelligence development. The children start enjoying reading if it is made a regular enjoyable activity at home. Therefore, Nepali parents who can read must think it is their parental responsibility to support and encourage their children by being their role models in reading books.
