Parents all over the world are looking for support and assistance to raise their children. Parents on St. Maarten are no exception when it comes to that. Through the Dutch funding project for Innovations in Education that is being channeled through USONA organization and the Division for Educational Innovations, the Parents of all children in FBE and PSVE schools can participate in parenting programs such as Active Parenting Now in 3, Active Parenting of Teens and Family in Action.
All these programs are free of charge for the parents and are conducted by enthusiastic and experienced leaders and trainers. There are also additional programs offered by some schools to accommodate the parents where needed.
In order to get parents more involved and truly be the voice and advocate of their children, all subsidized schools are required to have a parents' committee as stipulated in the Ordinance for Foundation Based Education, Secondary Education and Secondary Vocational Education.
Presently almost all subsidized schools have a Parents 'Teachers Association or Parents' Teachers Foundation. The members of these PTA or PTF's are being informed in several sessions on the regulations, duties, rights, benefits of a Parents' committee.
The ultimate goal is that these entire Parents' committees are represented in a unified body, the National Parents Platform for St. Maarten.
This Platform will function as an advisory body to the Ministry of Education. Parents will no longer be there in the parents' committee to solely take care of fundraising, bar-b-que and fun activities, but will also be able to ensure that they contribute to the quality of the Education that is being offered to their children.
As part of the parental involvement programs all parents have been given a survey to fill out regarding the indicators of parental involvement. A large number of parents have indicated their willingness to help but that they are unfortunately unable to find the time to be able to do so effectively.
To prepare representatives of the PTA and PTF's for their tasks in the National Parents Platform an information session has been scheduled for this evening November 26th 2012 by the Division of Educational
Innovation. The Division of Educational Innovation will be supported by the Division of Inspection who will present the representatives with in-depth information on their rights and obligations.
The following week Dr. Judith Arndell will host an interactive session regarding interaction between people with different characters. The Division of Educational Innovation urges representatives of the PTA and PTF's to make use of the information sessions as they believe that an informed and unified body is able to achieve great things.
