RAHAB ADHIAMBO: Parents should follow up on their child's progress in university

The narrative that university students are adults has led to irresponsibility among parents.

Campus students are one of the most neglected since it is assumed they are responsible people.

Most parents step into the school when taking their children for admission, and only return when it's time for graduation.

In between, it is everyone for him or herself and God for us all.

Sadly, some students take themselves for admission and parents only show up during graduation.

It is good to let campus students exercise full responsibility, but these students are still not capable of making sound choices by themselves and need parental guidance.

The kind of lifestyle campus students live can leave some parents in a shock they may not recover from.

The truth is that most students are in come we stay marriages without the parent's knowledge.

Sometimes, parents only learn of these unions when a student is killed in a love triangle or when a baby comes into the picture.

It will be a shocker for parents to receive not one but two grandchildren at the end of 4 years on campus.

Most students prefer to stay in school even during the holidays when they should go and reunite with their families.

This could be because they are pregnant, got into a group of drug abusers or are engaged in a genuine hustle.

Some students have no accommodation. Not because the parents cannot afford it but because they use their rent to buy drugs.

They, therefore, carry their clothes the whole day wherever they go and rely on generous friends to let them spend a night as they look for the next place to sleep the following day like pastoralists.

These students also do not attend lectures. They only sit for cats and fail to sit for end semester examinations without genuine reasons like lack of school fees or sickness.

Some even dropped out and are just staying within the university smoking bhang and getting drunk with friends using Helb Loans.

When graduation nears, they start looking for missing marks for exams they never sat for.

Some manage to graduate after years but are still within the university because of the drug gang they formed.

Many universities don't release results at the end of every semester as they take longer to process.

Therefore, students easily get away with it by telling parents that the results are not yet out yet they differed or dropped out.

There are instances where a fourth-year student still does not have second-year results, and therefore everyone is just promoted.

Most of these incidences can be avoided if the parents take the initiative to follow up their child's academic progress with the administration through the head of the department.

This will help them know the strengths and weaknesses of their children, the kind of friends they keep and even visit the house they stay in or their hostels, to salvage them on time.

 

Edited by Kiilu Damaris