By Alade   Aromashodu

As part of activities marking the 50th Golden Jubilee Anniversary of the University of Lagos, Management of the institution has charged parents to identify their responsibilities to the adolescents in order to assist them in achieving their dreams.

“Adolescents need to know their limit, reasonable restrictions, and requirements, but they also like to feel that these rules and regulations are things about which they themselves have had some say.

“They need help in solving their problems. But help does not mean providing ready-made solutions. They can be encouraged to look carefully at the pros and cons of many courses of action, and to arrive at the decision on important matters only after careful thought,” said Prof. (Mrs) Mopelola Omoegun, Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos.

Omoegun stated. She stated further; “They need to feel that some of the things that they do are important. In the course of becoming an adult, there should be challenging activities, not just dull routine. Otherwise, the adolescent just has to break out somewhere and make things happen.”

In her own contribution, Prof. (Mrs) Ayoka Mopelola Olusakin of Department of Educational Foundations, “parental discipline of the adolescent is the set of rules, rewards and punishments administered to teach self-control; increase desirable behaviours and decrease or eliminate the undesirable ones,” saying, “parents may use reasonable force or impose reasonable punishments to control, train, and educate the adolescents,” she stated.