RIYADH, 26 December 2006 — According to teachers interviewed by Arab News, the students that do best in school are the ones whose parents make frequent visits to the school and ask questions.

“The top students in school are those who have strong connection between school and home,” said Abdullah Al-Akeel, the principal of a Riyadh high school.

“You find such parents seek the best for their children and meet with their teachers to find out about the weaknesses in their children to improve them. The opposite are the parents that never ask about their children,” he said.

Suleiman Shareeda, student adviser at a high school, said that he notices a big gap between school and home in most students. He said that most parents are busy working and they never ask about their children’s performance, not even once.

“Many times we ask the father to come to school to discuss a student’s performance but our call falls on deaf ears,” Shareeda said. “They make excuses that they are busy with work or meeting. Most of them believe that work is much more important than asking about their children at school.”

He added that sometimes when they call home to ask about the father, they find the maid. Most often they are told that the father is out for work and the mother is asleep. He said that sometimes it seems the maids are more concerned about the child than the mother and they’re the ones asking questions about the child’s performance.

“This is a dangerous sign,” he said. “Not being able to find the parent is a very dangerous sign that something is seriously wrong at home. Sometimes we call the parents in for a meeting and they don’t show up.”

Khaled Al-Duraihim, a math teacher, said that most parents need awareness on how to be responsible toward their children. There should be a meeting at the beginning of each semester to teach fathers how to be responsible. “It is very important to strengthen the connection between school and home,” he said. “Some parents believe that it is the school’s responsibility to raise his child and that is why they never ask about them.”

Fahd Abbas, an Islamic teacher, said that students are “the great responsibility” of their parents. He said that some parents simply do not care because they are busy doing other things and the victim is the student.

“Some parents even don’t know what grades their children are in,” he said. “This is a clear indication that something is seriously wrong with the family.”