A GNA feature by Kodjo Adams

Accra, Dec. 16, GNA - There can be no doubt that education is the key to success and development.

And since charity begins at home, it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to play a counselling role in shaping the educational aspirations of their children and wards.

It is the dream of every parent or guardian to educate his/her child/ward for a better future. Parents/guardians serve as pathway in directing the child to do the right thing. The strength of a building lies in the foundation so also the strength of a child's education lies from the basic foundation in school.

The affection, concern and advice from parents/guardians at the early stages can in a long way help shape the future of a student positively, a= s education does not only lie in the hands of teachers only. There is no denying fact that the media serve a great purpose in educating the public but as to whether they are used for the intended purpose is another thing. Scientific literature proves that television viewing has substantial=

negative effects on children's health and behaviours. Exposure to violent=

media causes them to be more aggressive.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 38:33: "Let reason go before every enterprise and counsel before every action." Therefore the word of God supports the need for counselling in every sphere.

The aim of every action is to achieve positive results. If the programmes on our television and radio stations nowadays are not checked,=

they could change the focus of students in achieving their future ambitio= ns. This stems from the fact almost all the television and radio station= s in the country broadcast interesting programmes at the expense of student= s learning. For that reason it is the duty of parents/guardians to step in and p= lay their role in counselling their children. The question is: How many times have parents sat down to inspect the=

school activities of their children or insist that learning becomes part and parcel of them? Acquiring knowledge is about researching and human learni= ng.

Some parents/guardians think sending their children/wards to school is all that matters forgetting that the role of monitoring the child's schoo= l activities also helps in developing good attitude for the future. The changing nature of things in recent times demands dedicated, well=

focused and serious students to achieve their objectives.

Many students, especially children, sacrifice their learning period to watch television programmes with their parents. What direction are parent= s setting for the younger generation? The influx of technology cannot be underestimated with reference to mobile phones and the Internet.

Many youth spend their productive hours in the caf=E9 browsing or perpetrating fraud and the question many have asked is what future do we have for the youth? What proactive measures do parents/guardians put in place to help shape the desire of children/wards as they grow? It is startling to see a young boy at the age of 15 who is supposed to be in school, engaging in fraud.

No wonder Ghana was ranked as 10th country among the world's top cyb= er fraud (sakawa), according to statistics on Internet usage.

This glitch can be prevented if children get the needed training fro= m the basics, since at that time the child's brain is not yet mature and accepts what ever he is taught. It is the responsibility of parents to be resolute in making sure th= at students prepare their personal time-table and adhere to it. This will ma= ke the child to be conversant or develop the habit of learning. All and sundry must be involved in the activities of students and parents/guardians have a big role to play.