Making the world a better place is the main issue that makes the United Nations (U.N) created a plan with 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in different fields. The seventeenth of those is the partnership for the goals. Accordingly, “The public sector will need to set a clear direction, Review and monitoring frameworks, regulations and incentive structures” (UN SDG, 2015, para.1). One of these public sectors is education. PTAs are associations that are interested in enhancing the partnership between schools, parents, private and public sectors. The role played by these associations will sustain the U.N. goal of partnership through schools because it is one of the most puruasive institutions in societies.
A typical school set up is always comprised of the students who are the main participants in the school, teachers or tutors, the non-teaching staff and the parents. Students go to school for the sake of learning and contribute very little regarding the progress of school apart from performance and their studies and maybe in the co-curricular activities. On the other hand, parents, teachers and the non-teaching staff contribute highly to everything that happens in the school. From the development of school infrastructure to the formulation of policies that help the school to grow it is this group of individuals that contribute that.
It is therefore important that there be an association or rather union that aims at bringing together all these groups to work. There is a famous saying that states, “Two are better than one”. What this means is that a single body cannot perform that required duties independently of the latter (Mandarakas, 2014). Everyone needs help and advice to achieve their roles effectively. In a school setup partnership is important for the staff members and parents because they are the ones that spend the most time with the kids. Teachers spend almost a whole day with the kids at school while the rest of the day and weekends are spent with parents. These two groups have a particular role to play in ensuring the schools are well conditioned since they definitely have the interests of the children at heart. This paper discusses in brief the importance of the partnership between teachers and parents in relation to the seventeen sustainable development goals. Sustainable development goals are a list of goals drafted by the United Nations to help in the development of the society to become a better place for everyone.
Partnership as a Sustainable Development Goal
These goals are seventeen in number. These goals were first put down on 25 September 2005 by the United Nations. These goals are meant to aid in the achievement of UN’s vision 2030 agenda that expects to transform the world in terms of sustainable development by the year 2030 (United Nations, 2015). These goals include urbanization, health, poverty, gender equality, social justice, hunger, education, sanitation, climate change, water, energy, environment, and lastly partnership for the goals. The final goal in the sustainable development goals is the most significant. The United Nations recognizes that it is impossible to achieve these goals single-handedly. They therefore call for and encourage active involvement in the form of partnership between the member states that have committed to the achievement of the vision 2030. Education being one of the critical goals of SDG requires collaboration from parents and teachers to be achieved (United Nations, 2015).
The Importance of the PTA Partnership
The final and the most important of all goals in the sustainable development is partnership. This is the focus of this paper. To illustrate how the partnership between parents and school members of staff can help achieve the schools’ objectives.
In the United States the PTA has enhanced development in a number of ways. One, PTA promotes the oneness among student, teachers and parents (Mandarakas, 2014). They all have a forum where they can share their ideas and expectations as they work on achieving the school’s objectives. This unity is so essential because it sets the school in the same direction.
Secondly, PTA helps parents and teachers to agree on what is beneficial to the students and what is not in line with the provided curriculum in schools. There is always a problem in the misunderstanding between the school and parents on what should and should not be taught in schools. This partnership profitably deals with that.
This partnership also helps in bringing up kids in the right manner. In a way that they can benefit themselves at the same time contribute to the society. It is hectic for parents to bring up kids on their own. PTA provides an avenue for teachers and parents to work together with the aim of raising children in the right way (Mandarakas, 2014).
The PTA also gives the community, parents and teachers a forum to talk about everything that might affect the school and the society to which the school belongs. Logically, the school belongs to the entire community, not only the government or the board of management.
Resources and funds are often an issue in schools and their development processes. There are projects that the schools cannot carry out by themselves when they only rely on the tuition fees. PTA is allowed to organize fundraisers that will help in collecting enough funds for any set projects.
Finally, PTA acts as a meeting point where parents can channel their issues. There are ideas that parents might feel will be of great help to the school. They can also make various donations toward the same. PTA in the same forum gives parents a chance to ask questions and get the information and updates they would wish to know about the school.
In conclusion, the power of partnership is massive and is often seen in the fruits of development. The whole universe is on the same development train. The United Nations through the member states aims at achieving a sustainably developed world by 2030. To achieve this, they have stated clearly that partnership is the key. Education as one of the elements in the seventeen sustainable development goals and also requires partnership to be achieved. When parents and teachers work together, more is achieved at a relatively fast rate. Also, the work done in the association is quality and acts as a catalyst to the achievements of goals. Teachers and parents have a chance to openly work together and freely discuss how the schools can be better learning institutions to the children. Partnership between teachers and parents remain to be important for better education in schools.
References
United Nations. (2015). Partnerships for Sustainable Development Goals. New York: United Nations.
Mandarakas, M. (2014). Teachers and Parent—School Engagement: International Perspectives on Teachers’ Preparation for and Views about Working with Parents. Global Studies Of Childhood, 4(1), 21-27. doi: 10.2304/gsch.2014.4.1.21