In a school that encourages diversity in its student group, there will be representatives of many cultures. These students will come from different ethnicities and may not share the same language. Even if they can comprehend English, their family members may not. It can make teacher-parent collaboration difficult.
A student's academic success is often dependant on family involvement in their education. If these families are unable to interact with the academicians of the school they send their ward to – they may not be able to play a role in their child's academics. Schools should introduce the usage of simultaneous interpretation equipment to facilitate communication between these families and the teaching staff during PTAs, school programs, open houses and so on.
Non-English speaking guardians will feel more welcome to share their inputs if this were done. It is often seen that these guardians tend to shy away from participating in school events because of their inability to communicate in English. It should not be the case. These parents should have an equal opportunity to air their grievances and ask for advice as to any other parent without a language problem. Translation equipment in schools can help bridge this communication gap between the school faculty and non-English speaking parents.
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