26th December, 2019
Ms Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, Retired Chairman and Founder, Nigerian Network of Non-Governmental Organisations, has advocated that parenting studies be included in the primary school curriculum in Nigeria.
Ransome-Kuti in Lagos on Thursday said that teaching children parenting skills would equip them with the qualities needed to be a parent.
She said it would also put an end to unnecessary pressure from the society on people who had no interest in being parents.
“Parenting which is very important is a difficult job to do in the world. I will advocate that parenting skills and studies be taken to primary schools and be included in the school curriculum.
“In other parts of the country, they have developed curricula to equip even their primary schools and help children to understand the qualities needed to be a parent.
“Overseas, children are given a task by giving them dolls. Doing so is a way of introducing them early enough to little parenting ideas that they will build on by the time they get into the university where they will receive advanced studies.
“So, I will urge us to do the same because sometimes, parents are coming as usual, from their own background to mount pressure on their children, which is not needed today.
“They forget that their future, ideas and even aspirations are totally different from their children. They are coloured by their own culture,” she said.
Ransome-Kuti also warned against pressurising children who had not shown any sign of readiness to have children, to do so.
She said: “We say the world is overpopulated, yet, we want people to keep having children.’’
She advised people to have a rethink, be realistic and honest about these issues.
Ransome-Kuti urged the society to be futuristic, creative and understand that not every human being desired to be a parent.
She said some were happy without children but with their dogs and cats, while others adopted children.
She, therefore, advised that parenting be allowed to be an individual decision so that, when social issues arose, it could be easily solved.