Prof Dr Md Mahmudul Hassan :
Every child grows up under the close supervision of its parents for a certain period after birth. In this sense, the child’s first school is his family, which is established around the profound support of the parents.
To get education from this school called family, every parent enrolls their child in a neighboring school to build a beautiful future. In this sense, the school is a unique institution for the overall welfare and development of children.
Schools play an important role in the development of children. Facilitates their cognitive, social and emotional growth and provides a nurturing environment for their overall well-being.
From academic education to the development of social skills and moral values, the role of school is significant. The school contributes immensely in shaping the future of children and the overall development of life.
Child development refers to the process of growth and maturation in children from birth to adolescence.
As children grow over the years, it encompasses the incremental changes that occur in multiple domains, including physical, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects.
All three fields like; genetics, environment and experience, work together to shape children’s abilities, skills, and behaviors. Schools and their teachers play an important role in the environment and experiences a child may encounter during his childhood.
School plays a key role in the holistic development of children and provides a structured environment, which nurtures their intellectual, social, emotional and physical growth.
School equips them with skills and knowledge needed for the future. Every child’s overall development is enhanced by the experiences they gather at school. Below is a brief discussion on the significant role of school in child development.
1. Cognitive and Academic Development: School’s contribution to children’s cognitive and academic development is very important.
The primary aim of the school is to focus on the academic excellence of the children. In this case the school encourages intellectual development with a structured and organized learning environment, where children can acquire knowledge, develop cognitive skills and enhance their academic performance.
Teachers play an important role in facilitating the learning experience by providing effective teaching and offering individualized support to meet the diverse needs of students.
Specifically, schools offer a well-rounded curriculum, syllabus and assessment system, which help children to improve academically and prepare for future educational pursuits.
In multilingual schools, children are exposed to multiple languages from an early age, which promotes language acquisition and proficiency. Children’s cognitive skills for learning multiple languages in a multilingual school such as; attention, memory and executive functions are developed.
These cognitive skills are transferable, which can help improve academic abilities in areas such as reading, comprehension, math, and problem solving.
2. Social and emotional development: School provides a structured environment where children can interact with peers and exchange ideas with each other.
School has a significant impact on children’s social and emotional development, such as; It builds social skills, mutual empathy and teamwork experience.
Also, through extracurricular activities like group projects, sports, arts, music, drama and clubs, schools help children develop self-awareness, mutual cooperation, leadership and self-expression. Guidance from teachers and counselors at school helps children navigate emotions, develop resilience and build positive relationships.
3. Personality Development: School play an important role in personality development of children through various activities. School provides opportunities for children to explore their interests, talents and passions.
It fosters a sense of self-discovery and personal growth with the numerous extracurricular activities that may exist. Furthermore, through interactions with teachers, peers and various social environments, school shapes up children’s social skills, values and morals, which influence the development of their character, behavioral skills and empathic abilities.
School has a unique role to play in building the personality of children, making them confident, responsible and good human beings.
4. Moral and Cultural Development: School has a significant impact on the moral and cultural development of children. It provides a platform for learning and understanding different values, beliefs and perspectives.
By exposing them to different cultures and instilling a sense of empathy through activity-based learning, schools help children develop a strong moral compass, respect for others and appreciation for cultural diversity.
School provides opportunities for children to learn about their own culture as well as the culture of others. By celebrating cultural events and fostering an inclusive environment, school builds cultural awareness, respect, and the ability to understand the sense of others. By interacting with peers from different backgrounds, children gain a broader perspective, develop intercultural communication skills and grow to be more open-minded.
5. Exposure to modern technology: In this era of the fourth industrial revolution, the use of modern information and technology is part of the daily activities of schools. Children can learn to use advanced technology from a very young age through their early childhood education.
Robotics, coding, Internet browsing, gaming, and most of the online learning tools are introduced with the children at schools. Exposure to modern technology from childhood creates a special motivation in children and sparks an innovative energy in them. As a result, they can instill the courage to prepare for any competition.
Through the use of Artificial Intelligence, schools help children gain a solid understanding of the application of modern technology.
So, it can be said with certainty that school is one of the means of overall development of the child. School always provides a nurturing environment, encourages acquisition of knowledge, develops skills and practices personality formation.
Parental support and school influence contribute significantly to children’s overall development. Every child is the apple of his parents’ eyes, the role of the school is highly commendable to nurture this child well and ensure his bright future.
We should grow our confidence in schooling experience for our children and strongly support the school for their good nourishment and morality based cultural approaches.
The writer is Principal, Daffodil International School and
President, Bangladesh International Schools Association (BISA).
