Are you certified to be a good parent? Now you can be. Madurai Kamaraja University (MKU) has started a course on parenting. It will teach parents how to raise their kids while coping up with their busy lifestyles.

Most of the families have working parents today and it becomes important to know how to raise your kid in the most efficient manner. Till now parenting had been driven by popular beliefs, with parents doing what their parents did or suggested. I am not sure whether the methods of parenting which worked 15-20 years ago are still valid. I think such a course makes perfect sense as you cannot afford to do experiments in raising your kid.

This course is a PG course and will be offered through distance education mode. This means that busy parents can pursue this course without disturbing their work life. You need to hold a undergraduate degree to enroll for this course. Initially this course is being launched in Tamil but will soon be available in English medium, as per university sources.

The course will teach parents about family relationships, psychology of children, and career options which parents can consider for their children. This course by MKU is inspired by a similar course offered by the Chinese University of HongKong where it was introduced as a means for checking the increasing number of divorces and family separations. I think in India this course should focus more on children centric issues like peer pressure and competition. But I wonder how will the parents measure the effectiveness of this course?