Parents cannot give what they do not have

Nov 15, 2026 Features / Columnists, News

(Kaieteur News) – This week, the Ministry of Education launched Parent Connect, an initiative designed to help parents become more involved in their children’s education and development. I welcome it. Three years ago, STEMGuyana introduced its own Parent Academy programme, sponsored by IDB Lab under our Learning Pods project. The programme was designed around what we had learned from years of working with children and engaging with their parents, listening to their concerns and understanding the challenges they face. We know how important parental involvement is to children’s academic success, and substantial research supports that connection. But as we encourage parents to become more active partners in their children’s education.

Research has repeatedly established a relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement. A 2015 meta-analysis by María Castro and colleagues, examining 37 studies, found a positive association between parental involvement and students’ academic performance. William Jeynes, in a separate analysis of 51 studies published in 2012, found that parental involvement programmes were associated with measurable improvements in academic achievement. Parental involvement is one thing. Understanding what enables parents to provide that involvement is another.