Mrs Jane Ukaigwe, an educationist with the National Open University (NOUN) has advised parents and care givers on proper upbringing of children for a better society and development of the country.
Ukaigwe, who is also a life coach for children, teenagers and youths, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during a book launch in Kuje.
NAN reports that three books were written by Ukaigwe, titled: ‘Pray Them Out’ ‘Your Assignment’ and ‘Young People’s Pressing Questions’.
She said proper upbringing was important, as it predicted how children performed in the domains of social competence, psycho-social development, academic performance and behaviour.
According to her, there is need for parents and care givers to be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to take the responsibility of parenting the 21st century children.
“Pray Them Out’ is a book that sensitises parents to the need for them to bring out prayer points for their children, for them to achieve their destiny.
“The second book is ‘Your Assignment’, and is about sensitising people to what they have been created for and what God has called them to do on earth.
“It is only in your assignment that you can fulfill your destiny, people are running from pillar to post and they put their hands in places because they have not discovered why God called them for’’, she said.
However, she said bad parenting was responsible for most of the challenges confronting the nation today, adding that positive parenting would help to develop a child.
On mentoring, she said parents had vital roles to play in defining how every society grew and the kind of values transmitted at the family level defines the quality of every society.
She expressed dissatisfaction that the Nigerian parenting style had changed, saying that the parenting style today seemed to be more loose and lenient than it was before.
“The third book is ‘Young People’s Pressing Questions’ and I have come to realise that there’s a lot of bordering questions that are in the hearts of the young people.
“Parents are not helping matters because they don’t have answers to most of these questions because there is no good relationship and the children go out to get answers from the wrong people,’’ she said.
Similarly; Ukaigwe advised parents, who left their children at the care of maids, to strike a balance by giving adequate attention to their youngsters, to know them better.
The educationist, also called on the governments, Non-Government Organisations, and Civil Society Organisations, to be committed in supporting the development of the education sector. (NAN)