In the absence of safe, nurturing neighbourhoods there is a sudden void. Schools need to step forward to ensure the well-being of parents, children and educators

(Devyani Mungali is founder of the Sanskriti Group of Schools, Pune, which has 9,000 students and 500 teachers on its muster rolls)

The old adage which professed, “it takes a village to raise a child” is still relevant in the modern world. The challenge is that there has been rapid fraying of the supportive social structures which existed earlier. There is vanishing support of large, extended families which provided a safety net for young parents and children to grow and blossom into healthy, well-rounded individuals.

In the absence of safe, nurturing neighbourhoods there is a sudden void. It is imperative that schools step forward to ensure well-being of all three stakeholders — parents, children and educators. Schools have a significant responsibility to plan and create safe and secure learning spaces and provide ample opportunities for engagement, free expression, experimentation and collaboration between children, parents and educators.

Hitherto, the primary role of schools was to provide education, while the emotional, behavioural and social well-being needs of children were fulfilled by families, neighbourhoods, and communities, which were strongly interwoven in the fabric of society. In modern times parents are often working in bustling towns and cities, far from the places they grew up in. They are juggling the responsibilities of being good providers and parents simultaneously. They are constantly anxious about their jobs, families and want to provide the best education to their children.

Isolationism caused by social media and long hours spent online are other challenges which pose danger to the emotional welfare of children. Increasingly, children are spending less time in face-to-face interaction with family and friends. Unfortunately, not only children but even care-giving adults are being blindsided by creeping normalization of adult time being spent on social media, resulting in neglect of emotional and mental comfort of children.

Therefore the onus has devolved upon school managements to provide children, parents and educators opportunities to work collaboratively for the benefit of children. These opportunities could be working on science projects, co-curricular education, music, dance, art, pottery and creative writing. Enabling sports education provides a great fillip to not just children’s physical well-being but also their mental health. Schools have the wherewithal, infrastructure and personnel to guide children, parents and educators to learn through hands-on experiences. Opportunities can be created by teachers for children and parents to learn how to discuss, express differing opinions, and respect differences of opinion. Spaces and platforms have to be created to resolve differences and manage emotions of sadness, joy, anger, frustration, and disappointment.

Only schools have the capability to create bridges to build rapport among parents, children and teachers — the school community. Working together they can develop children’s soft skills, resilience, empathy, collaborative learning and team building capabilities. Healthy parent-teacher collaboration will enable children to learn the vitally important skill of communication — what to say, where to say, how to say it and learn to be good listeners.

One of the realities of the 21st century is the dawn of a new digital age. Parents and teachers need to acknowledge and accept the ideological confusion and obsession with digital devices which has spread within children and adult communities. This has created new unprecedented dangers. Children are often in the care of digital nannies, living their lives in a virtual world, far removed from reality. They are exposed to content unsuitable for their age, experience cyber bullying, play online games and are exposed to mindless violence, which they could start accepting as normative. To confront this rising danger to children’s mental and emotional stability, strong parent-teacher collaboration is required for children to be guided, counselled and motivated to manage rather than get overwhelmed by technology.

Moreover in these complex times, we teachers need to reflect and introspect whether we should prepare children in our care to pass exams, or teach them to succeed in their careers and lives while maturing into emotionally and mentally well-adjusted adults. Self-evidently, the wider definition of education necessitates working collaboratively with parents to win the confidence of children to develop the whole child. Twenty-first century children beset with unprecedented distractions, anxieties and insecurities require constant support of parents and teachers who need to collaboratively guide them through childhood and school into adulthood and higher education.

Against this backdrop, school managements, teachers and parents need to work in partnership to ensure the academic, mental and emotional well-being of children. We need to collectively accept and acknowledge that we are preparing our children to thrive and succeed in life outside the safe boundaries of schools and homes.