Our Children, our future

Today, 6 April I appeared in a morning talk show on one of the radio stations in western Uganda. We were four panelists and a moderator talking about ‘Bringing up children’. All of us agreed that parents have continued to have a big challenge in bringing up children due to the current life styles and trends. We explored the need to earn in order to contribute to the economics of the family, where by both parents have to work. This situation has continued to keep parents away from home, making children more vulnerable to any unexplained situation. Parents have continued to leave their young children at the hands of house maids whose character is questionable. In Uganda, we don’t have companies that can train house maids such that one hires them. We instead bring these young girls from our villages, who are either school drop outs or orphans whose upbringing is also wanting. These are the type of house helps we bring in out homes to look after our children. There is an old saying that ‘it takes a whole village to bring up a child.’ But this used to happen long time ago when capitalism had not invaded our communities. These days, no one will seem to care about your child. Each family looks after itself and God is the one who is for us all. For us when we were growing up in 1980’s we respected our neighbor more than our own parents at home. It would be a serious crime for a neighbor to find you in wrong. We would make sure that we behave ourselves on the way to school because we knew someone was watching us. But to day things have completely changed. You meet a child on the way who hardly greets you and when you try to ask a few questions, you will be lucky if this child does not abuse you. In the past, everyone worked towards the wellbeing of every person in the community. These days we are seeing selfishness and the ‘I am not my brother’s keeper’ situation. I don’t know whether this trend can be reversed. There is another issue of boarding schools especially the private ones. I have one several occasions, on my visits to primary schools, seen children of 3 years boarding. This is a serious mistake parents we are doing. According to the chairman of Uganda National Examination Board and a consultant in education, Mr. Fagil Mandy, it is dangerous to take a primary level pupil to a boarding school. He says that this is the time a child needs the guidance of parents and to create a strong relationship with them. He asked parents to at least take make their children board when they join secondary school. In this, we have left our children at the hands of teachers who hardly have enough time for all the children in their care. Religious studies have for many years instilled discipline and respect in our children. While in school, there was compulsory prayers every morning. This could help us love our religious and God at it. Today, teachers no longer have these programs in our schools. They are interested in good grades, which the government puts them on pressure to, forgetting that this child needs morals. The government (leadership) has also not done enough in helping parents to bring up their children. They are more interested in telling our children about their rights for getting that these rights go with responsibilities. There is not effort in their budget to program for the young who takes the highest percentage in the country. Lastly, bringing up children should be a collective responsibility. Parents, teachers, the community and government should come up to disciplined and respectful children for these children are our future. As I said, “it takes a whole village to bring up a child”. I wish everyone good parenting.