All parents would like our children to succeed in studies, and in our country this issue occupies a good part of our concerns, given the high rates of school failure.
Curiously, for each mother and father, school success translates into different attitudes and desires: that the children take an excellent average, learn to strive and be constant, be happy in their school stage, enjoy learning, etc.
We all care about our children, studies are not out of our thoughts and we do what we can to lend our support. According to bulletin number 10 of PISA in Focus made by the OECD 'For the most part, parents know, instinctively, that spending more time with their children and becoming actively involved in their education will provide them with a great advantage in life.'. What happens is that the so-called labor and family reconciliation does not exist in practice (at least in our country), and therefore many parents do not know very well how to manage to make their work compatible with the attention to children.
I do not know if this could act as a factor (of greater or lesser weight) in the bad position that Spain continues to occupy in the latest PIRLS tests. Of course it will not have the influence that an educational system anchored in the past can have, which - moreover - is undergoing more than obvious cuts.
On the other hand, parents are often reluctant to offer their children help with homework because they think they lack some of the skills that would influence their children's success in school.
How can parents influence the results?
Although the last PISA evaluation was carried out almost four years ago, the answers to questions related to the activities that parents do with their children, allowed for an analysis that offered interesting data.
It is not necessary to have a doctorate or dedicate an infinite number of hours for parents to influence the results. In fact, many activities between parents and children that are associated with greater reading performance involve relatively little time and no specialized knowledge.. Of course, what these activities require is a genuine interest and actively involved.
On average, in the 14 countries for which data is available, the difference is 25 points, but this difference ranges from 4 points in the associated country Lithuania to 63 points in New Zealand.
Fathers and mothers who make a difference: provide support to children at the beginning of Primary Education
On average, students from families that are advantageous from a socioeconomic point of view enjoy a more conducive environment for diverse learning, including having more involved parents.
However, even when compared to students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds, those students whose parents read them books regularly when they were in the first year of Primary Education have a 14 point higher score, on average, than students whose parents did not.
We are here with a fairly obvious inequality since many moms and many dads who would like to give more support to children will not be able to because of their labor obligations. And on many occasions with a double inequality 'have a medium socioeconomic level and not have time for children'.
The results of PISA also show a strong association between some activities between parents and children, when children are 15 years old, and reading performance according to PISA. For example, Students whose parents talk about political or social issues with them either weekly or daily have 28 points of advantage, on average, about those whose parents talk about these issues less frequently or never.
Other activities between parents and children, such as “talking about books, movies or TV shows,” “talking about how children are doing in school,” “sitting together at the table to eat,” and “spending time simply to talk with the children ”, they are also associated with a better student performance in reading at school.
I am left with the recommendation in the PISA Focus newsletter that I have presented to you: educational systems should study how they can help busy parents to have more presence in the education of their children.
And although the OECD experts who prepare these documents do not say so, I do: Governments should be recommended to look a little more for families, and mechanisms are sought so that parents who wish so can really reconcile and have more chances of being with children.
