The three pillars of the educational system are teachers, parents, and students, and these pillars must function properly for the system to be effective.

I was dressing hair in a village Salon. The father of one of my matriculation classmates entered there. His other son was my student and he was at the top of the class. I began by telling him how well his son is doing academically. Advised him to take care of him so that he may not spoil in the village environment. He replied, “I have admitted my son to a madrassa (religious school), he was sitting with me yesterday. I urged him not to worry about his schoolwork; after all, why study if we have to become drivers? “

Children frequently disappeared from the Class X practical exam. They didn’t even know the paper’s date. To ensure that no child was left out of the exam, I used to send an on-call instructor to the examination centre. Three students were once absent from the examination centre, the teacher informed me over the phone. I grabbed their roll no, looked up the names and contact information for their fathers in the school records, and instructed their teachers to call their parents right away and pick them up to go to the examination centre. All the parents of the children had been called. The instructor reported: Sir! The child’s father said he was running late and decided not to go. Pointing to the name of another student, his father said, “I don’t know where he will be. I can’t find him. Let him lost.”

After taking charge of the school, I paid particular attention to the teacher-parent-student relationship. Started monthly progress reports for each section of each class. Compiled an Excel sheet on which monthly results and absences were written and a full report of each child was prepared. I hoped that when we call the parents and they see our efforts, they will definitely come to see the child’s report next time. I also urged each class in charge to telephone the parents of the absent child regularly. When the first parents’ meeting was called, about 4–5% of the parents were present. After that, unfortunately, that number couldn’t get higher than 1–2%, and most parents still say they don’t have enough time to go to school.

I’m writing to say that these are special events, not at all. This is a daily routine. When a call is made to a parent’s number from a school, it is often the case that if the phone number is identified, no one listens, and even if it is heard, there is no response.

The pillars of the educational system are teachers, parents, and students. The educational system will be maintained if all the pillars are there; else, this system will not function. Additionally, the relationship between a teacher and student is not as strong as that between a parent and a kid.

Read more from Dr Afzal Badshah about teaching and learning.

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