PIBG without the Bees

My two boys are in secondary school now (in Form 1 and 2) and we, myself and spouse and the two boys took time off to attend the PIBG AGM yesterday morning. Please note that parents with children enrolled in the school are automatically a member of the PIBG.

We were among the first few who are punctual (the AGM was supposed to start at 8a.m.).

The missing bees
PIBG - Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru - which basically means parents - both father and mother. However, yesterday’s AGM was not the case. It was more of Persatuan Ibu dan Guru since the present of fathers are countable. Maybe the men are exceptionally busy on a Saturday but I feel that we (the men) should give time to attend to meetings like this and where we have the chance to hear from the teachers themselves on the progress on our children.

My boys being naughty sometimes do need us to put them back on track.

Bridging the gap between parents, teachers and students
I feel that there is a large gap in communication between parents, teachers and our children. Most parents leave the work and duties to educate our children on the shoulders of the teachers. While we put our trust on these teachers, we also need to be updated and inform of the movement of our children in school.

As we know, most of our children are involved with lots of school activities of which some are being conducted outside the school compound or at other location outside the school. In this respect, the parents need to be well inform of the whereabout of our children. And, most of the time we will need to sign a letter (sort of an agreement) to allow our children to participate and the school is not responsible for any accident, etc.

More often the standard form is not well filled with details of the activity and we are asked to sign it relying on the trust of what our children have informed us. I have often reluctantly signed that letter but not to disappoint my boys, I forced myself to sign it.

Taking all that into consideration, I have discussed with my spouse and we agreed to assist the school through the PIBG, to have a website where all this information can be share with all the parents, teachers, students and the public.

What to expect from the website?
Firstly, the domain is STJOSEPH.MY and it should be active within the next week. We hope to form a web team with teachers and students leading it. They know what is best for the website.

Of course, to me, a forum, blog, photo gallery, calendar are those that need to included.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the new office bearers lead by Siril Den as the Chairman.