Determining Parental Involvement in the Sunday School of Burundi Free Methodist Church in Buterere Parish

Abstract

To educate children, it is the task of both church and parents to raise them in God’s way. As we know, formal education needs a school. The church has a Sunday school program, so the children’s ministry must be a priority. Parental involvement is the key element for children’s success in Sunday school education in the church or at home. The focus of this study was to determine parental involvement in the Sunday school, which refers to the many different behaviors and practices at home or at school, including parental aspirations, expectations, attitudes, and beliefs regarding their child’s education. This investigation used questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. A descriptive research design was conducted to identify the problems met by the parents in getting involved in the Sunday school. A cross-sectional survey based on parental involvement in Sunday school of the Buterere parish was done in October 2020 of research based on Deuteronomy 11: 18-19, the passage that reveals that parents were responsible for the education of their children. Thirty Parents were selected according to their availability and required to have children in Sunday school. They were chosen randomly from the Buterere Parish, which is made up of two local churches with 100 Christian parents. Some are widowed, married, and divorced. There are illiterate parents, and those with literacy levels from primary and secondary schools, to university level literacy. The analysis and interpretations of the data were processed by using Word and Excel. The findings confirmed that the parents were not significantly involved in the forms of Sunday school education, there are barriers to involvement for parents, and the respondents were not involved in forming strategies for overcoming these barriers. Due to the findings, the researcher formed recommendations to the stakeholders.