Parental roles towards the creation of health promoting schools

Abstract

A call for parents to be involved in the education of their children is not a modern phenomenon at all. It is increasingly a call which invites parents to be involved in every sphere of their children‟s lives, including their health. Children of South Africa, like many other children in Africa, are engulfed with health issues. These problems range from drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, obesity, violence, suicide, alcohol, etc. Therefore, it is crucial to engage parents in an effort to promote the health of their children in school and together with schools. Various parental roles were established during the early part of the century when parents were obliged to raise their children according to the set standard. As time went by, schools clearly drew a line to distinguish their role from parents‟ roles. Later on a need for parental involvement in schools arose again and a call for parents to attend to their obligations was a necessity, although parents were seen as problems by teachers. This allowed a space for barriers to grow between parents and teachers to such an extent that there was no collaboration in addressing problems affecting children in schools. To investigate the issue of parental roles and health promotion in schools thoroughly, qualitative measures were applied. The analysis indicated that there is indeed a great need for parents to be involved in promoting the health of their children in schools. However, a lack of knowledge amongst parents and a lack of skills to work with parents amongst teachers hamper the possibility of preventing most of the health issues affecting many children of South Africa. Indeed parental participation in schools and health promoting schools can yield positive results not only for the children, but for the schools and parents as well. Therefore, the government must employ practical strategies to involve parents in promoting the health of children in schools.