Lessons For The Future

Ushering in a new era for school–parent-student partnerships

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As life slowly starts returning to normal amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience gained over the past year—during some of the most challenging times faced by parents, schools and teachers—has presented an unexpected silver lining: the opportunity for a renewed trust and working relationship between all these parties, an education expert says.

“Life, as we know it, as it was before the reality of COVID-19, entered our existence, will almost certainly never be the same again, and that is very much true for education as well,” says Jenny Coetzee, former principal at Crawford La Lucia, and now managing director at Crawford International School Kenya.

She adds that before COVID-19, education mostly started when a student entered school gates and was largely considered to be the sole responsibility of the school and educators. “What the experience of these last few months has shown us—and the situation was very much the same across most of the world, including in South Africa and Kenya—is that there is much strength and value to be found in the development of a cooperative trust relationship between schools, parents and students.”

The famous quote by leading global education policy expert Judith Billings could not be more apt right now: “Children are the priority. Change is the reality. Collaboration is the strategy.”