IF parents are a child’s first teachers, then supporting parents and young children may be one of the most important investments Pakistan can make.

On many Saturday afternoons some years ago, I would leave my corporate responsibilities behind and spend time as a volunteer counsellor at the Juvenile Detention Centre at Karachi Central Jail. The boys I met came from different backgrounds and circumstances. Some had made poor decisions. Others had been dealt difficult hands in life. Yet as I listened to their stories over the course of a year, I was struck by a recurring thought: society had intervened far too late. By the time these children entered the juvenile justice system, countless opportunities for positive intervention had already been missed. Stable family support, nurturing environments, positive role models and consistent care had often been absent. The cost of repairing lives at that stage was immense — for the individual, their family and society.

That experience stayed with me. Years later, through my work in education and social entrepreneurship at The Aman Foundation, I encountered another powerful idea through Teach For Pakistan’s emphasis on teachers as leaders. No education system can outperform the quality of its teachers. But over time, I came to realise something even more important: before every teacher comes a parent.

Parents are a child’s first teachers.

Long before a child enters a classroom, they are learning language, trust, empathy, resilience and emotional regulation. The foundations of human development are laid not in schools or workplaces, but in homes and caregiving environments during the earliest years of life. Yet public policy often focuses on institutions while paying........

© Dawn