Forum seeks stronger voice for parents

Four organisations concerned with parental involvement in schooling have come together under a new body called Parents in Education Forum in order to share plans, collaborate on initiatives and give a stronger voice to parents in decision making.

The forum's members are the Association of School Councils (parents of state school children sit on the councils); the Foundation for Educational Services, a government agency which runs a number of educational programmes targeting parents; the Focus Group on parental involvement, which pushes forward the implementation of curriculum principles in this area; and the recently set-up Association of Parents of Children in Church Schools.

Parents of children in private schools, however, are missing from the forum. The director of the Office of Review within the Education Ministry, Frans Borg, under whose initiative the forum was set up, said that unlike state or Church schools, the private sector did not have a single body that represents all parents. It was therefore difficult to know who could sit on the forum in their name. He said the forum would try to identify other organisations that may be interested in joining it and create a database of all organisations involved in the field.

A veritable dynamo in the field of education and a longtime proponent of greater parent participation, Mr Borg co-founded the school councils association a few years ago and more recently was elected general secretary of the European Parents Association.

The EPA has a seat in the Convention on the Future of Europe.

Mr Borg, a parent himself, had proposed the forum at a national conference on parental involvement last year, saying such a body would serve to boost the still inadequate level of participation. Parental involvement in schools could range from helping organise outings and raising funds, to influencing the school's curriculum and development plan.

The forum has now met four times and its first act has been to translate the EPA's charter of rights and duties into Maltese with a view to disseminating it widely among parents.

The charter contains 10 principles. For example, it declares that parents have a right to be recognised as the primary educators of their children, while urging them to raise their children responsibly and not to neglect them. Parents have the right to influence school policies, but also the duty to be committed to their child's school as a vital part of the local community.

In October, the forum will organise the second local edition of the European Day of Parents and Schools, which is held under the auspices of the EPA. Last year parents of children in state schools had flocked to events held to mark the day, such as talks and exhibitions.

Mr Borg said another of the forum's primary aims was to make known examples of good practice and successful initiatives in the building of stronger parent-school partnership.

The forum will also make recommendations to policy authorities and participate in the national debate on education.

"We want to give a stronger voice to parents," said Mr Borg. "We are conscious that parents are not a homogenous group, and that a large number of them do not speak out or are not heard by decision makers. We want to convey their concerns and ideas.

"We will do this by keeping in touch with the grassroots, and keeping in mind that a complaint about a broken toilet in some school is just as important and relevant as a proposal on achieving higher academic standards."