Encourage children to be assertive - Parents advised

Parents and guardians have been advised to encourage their children and wards to be confident and assertive to empower them for nation building.

That, according to the Guidance and Counselling Co-ordinator at the Kumasi Metro Office of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs Felicia Ofosua Tettey, would also help build their self-esteem.

At the Open and Awards Day of the Kokoben MA Basic School at Kokoben in Kumasi, she said parents and guardians had critical roles to play in the lives of their children.
“Parents in particular must make their children proud and that the need to build confidence and assertiveness in them for nation building is key. Low self-esteem must be a thing of the past,” she stated.

Speaking on the theme: “Improving stakeholders participation in education”, she noted that apart from teachers, parents and guardians remained stakeholders who could help improve the educational life of schoolchildren.

She said one of the steps that parents and guardians could take to improve education of their children was to instil the “can do mentality” in them.

Mrs Tettey observed that psychologically, the “can do mentality” as a syndrome had led many in the academic field to success.

Even though schoolchildren may not have the capacity to score excellent marks in their term and final examinations, consistently backing them up with the syndrome was capable of making them better.

Boldness to deny sexual proposals

She further noted that most times, the girl-child was exploited by men under the guise of love.

Falling victim to such proposals from men had its own dire consequences on education and the advancement of the girl-child.

The situation, however, she said, had become necessary for parents and guardians to also instil boldness in their children, especially the girl-child, to be able to resist sex proposals that may come their way.

The Headmistress of the school, Mrs Angelina Yeboah, said since the inception of the school in 1960, it had had infrastructural challenges affecting teaching and learning.

She, therefore, called on the public to assist the school to build a new KG block, an ICT centre and a library to improve quality education.