I recently revisited two important research studies on student success and parental involvement, and they struck me like a thunderbolt. One study, published more than two decades ago, found that successful African American students often had more engaged parents than even their White counterparts. These parents discussed grades, future plans, and college readiness at home; they set rules; they had high expectations. Another study, published later, looked at thousands of students across different ethnic groups in the United States. It found that parental aspiration, simply the belief and expectation that your child should go far, was the strongest predictor of student motivation and achievement.
Those findings echo loudly in Guyana today. We all know that our public school system is struggling. Ask any parent of a top-performing student, and you will hear the same truth; success almost always comes at a cost. Families pay for extra lessons, sometimes at great personal sacrifice, because they know the classroom alone is not enough. Yet research tells us that while lessons help, the decisive factor in student achievement is us, the parents.
We cannot control every weakness in the school system, but we can control what happens in our homes. The research says that children do better when parents are involved, not only by paying for extra lessons but by shaping daily habits and mindsets. In fact, when parents consistently talk to their children about school, about their future, about what it takes to succeed, students develop confidence, persistence, and motivation. That is the kind of social capital that money cannot buy.
In today’s world, too many of our children spend hours on video games and social media while books gather dust. If we want better results, we must change that equation. Replace an hour of video games with an hour of reading together. Sit with your child, not only to check homework but to talk about their dreams and how school connects to them. Take them to the library, even once a month. Show them how to use free online resources like Khan Academy or enroll in our Pathway Online Academy program which offers every lesson in the MOE curriculum, even those that your child’s teacher will skip. Encourage them to write, to think about solutions, to get used to working with others, to ask questions.
Set expectations, and set them high. Research shows that when parents say, “I expect you to go to college, to achieve more than I did,” children internalize that belief. They begin to see themselves as capable, as worthy of opportunity. At the same time, set boundaries. Limit television, limit late nights, limit idleness. These are small but powerful ways of telling your child, “Your education matters.”
I am not suggesting this is easy. Many parents are tired from long days of work, some struggling just to make ends meet. But the truth is that our children cannot afford for us to wait on the system alone. The school system may provide the basics, but the research, and our own experience in Guyana, tells us that the greatest gift we can give our children is our involvement.
So, to my fellow parents, today I ask you join me in reading with your children? In asking about their school day, their plans, their struggles? I ask you set boundaries around screen time, and encourage them to explore online learning tools instead? I also ask you to let them know, every single day, that you expect great things from them?
The future of Guyana’s children is not written by the Ministry of Education alone. It is written in our homes, by us.