Thursday, December 13, 2012

Ways to Give Back to Your Child's School

My daughter is only 3.5 yr old and enrolled in preschool since September but I am amazed by the involvement of parents here in their children's education from early on.

I started asking myself why can't this be done in Tanzania? Why people just sit down and complain about the unproductive eduction system but do nothing. Well, if people complain about the public education but how many parents waste money on private school that have the same bad results as public schools? The cultural belief of leaving school to be the expert in the children's education is so outdated. If many parents get involved the result will improve tremendously. 
  

There are so many ways to give back to your school whether your child attend a private or public school and this will increase involvement in your child education.

Clean UP 
Organize a group of parents, kids, and community members to spend a day or weekend cleaning up the school grounds or washing windows. Make it an annual or semi-annual event to help bring the community together. 

Hold a Fundraiser 
There are traditional fundraising eg bake sales, washing cars or collecting old ink cartridges to recycle.

Donate Money
A monetary donation, no matter what size, is always helpful. It can buy school supplies, help fund field trips, and keep extracurricular activities from getting cut. The school will be grateful for any amount you are able to give. 

Lend Your Expertise
Do you have an interesting hobby or skill that you can teach? Bring your expertise to the school. Arrange a time with the teacher to come in for an in-classroom lecture.

Organize a Field Trip
Do you work somewhere that might make an interesting field trip, or do you have connections to a local business that would be open to little visitors? Talk to your child's teacher about planning an out-of-classroom day trip. The students will love it, and it will open their eyes to many different career paths they can take.

Donate School Supplies
School luck supplies. You don't have to supply a truck load full of supplies. Whatever you can afford it will help so much in your child school.

Volunteer in the Classroom
It will be better if you volunteer in school. If you've got a little time to spare, go help your child's teacher with hands-on classroom activities, reading to the students, or tasks like correcting papers.

Join the Parent Teacher Associations (PTA)
If your child's school don't have one create one.  A group like this will help you network with other parents, get to know your child's teachers, and will allow you to stay up-to-date on everything that is going on at the school.

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