specific needs of children and elderly left behind as a ... - IOM Moldova

The perception Children’s of labour education migration
everything depends on school and on the class teacher”; “It is quite hard to
work with them” (FG_EC_rural).
The opinion of the representatives of the Ministry of Education in this context
is relevant in assigning the decisive role to parents in educating and
ensuring the child’s right to education: “It is important not to forget that
the first educator of the child is their own family, and the law guarantees the
observance of the absolute role of the parent, depending on the possibility to
provide their children with moral, intellectual, physical, social and religious
education” (III_EC_6).
The study suggests that family factors are important to get good school results
and the family has a monitoring and orientating role. Labour migrant
parents provide reduced control and support to their children on their
school path. This generates low and occasional attendance or even abandonment
and the development of deviant behaviour. Grandparents who
take care of grandchildren are not always good advisers in school matters
as they lack competence and experience to face the modern curriculum.
They may also be physically helpless and already have their daily tasks.
Extra-curricular activities are a vulnerable feature for children left behind.
They involve themselves less in extra-curricular activities and are influenced
by other groups, often in a harmful way.
Cultural consumption of children whose parents are abroad is mostly limited
to watching TV and playing on the PC. Books, developmental toys,
newspapers and journals are rarely listed as priorities on which they spend
remittances.
The attitude towards school children with migrant parents is sometimes
characterized by hostility and low motivation to adjust to the lifestyle requirements
as a result of inadequate family education. This ambiguous and
frustrating environment also leads to a lack of confidence and deceptive
behaviour.
The impediments that influence the school results of children deprived of
parental care can be outlined as: the lack of surveillance and control, and
the lack of parents’ interest towards their own children; the child’s uncertainty
that the parent is acquainted with the child’s school results; the lack
of an authoritative and protective parental presence; an inadequate relationship
between the responsibilities the child has and new responsibilities
that do not correspond to his age (especially in the rural area); the care
for little brothers/sisters, etc.; the decrease in relations between children
and parents and the lack of adequate communication between them; the
reversed role when parents seek to find the fulfillment of their own emotional
needs in their children; the lack a partnership between family and
school.
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