Fjordman

Immigrant parents make children skip school

The country's schools have just opened their doors again after the summer holidays, but not every student is there to enter. Some schools report one in every five students missing from the schoolrooms. Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that some children had not returned from vacation in their homelands with their parents. They might not return until weeks into the new school year.n 'It's worrying, because school start is the most unfortunate moment for parents to keep their children away from school,' said Niels Egelund, professor at the Danish Pedagogic University. 'The students have a large gap. It's the time for introduction for all the new areas and subjects.' Bilingual students have been discovered to do much worse at school than their all-Danish peers. 'When students are kept away from school start, it’s a big problem for their integration and can affect the children's educational level,' said Integration Minister Rikke Hvilshøj. She said a committee would discuss methods to get parents to send their children to school from day one.

'These are children who have problems beforehand following what's going on at school,' Hvilshøj said. 'Not being there when the school year starts won't make it any easier. We need to make parents understand that if their children are to get a good chance in Denmark, they need to make sure that they are there when school starts.' Khalid Alsubeihi, immigrant spokesman in Copenhagen's Nørrebro quarter, said he agreed that parents were responsible for getting their children to show up in school. He said more communication was needed between schools and parents. 'The lack of communication goes both ways,' Alsubeihi said. 'Schools need to get better at explaining to parents that their children will suffer from not participating in classes, and parents need to accept more responsibility for their children's studies.' Author and journalist Rushy Rahsid said she had often gone on long vacations to Pakistan with her parents as a child. 'Families go on such long trips to give their children a healthy dose of religion, culture, traditions, and family,' she said. 'If you buy a very expensive ticket, you want to take full advantage of the trip and meet the entire family.'

posted by Unknown @ 10:53 AM