My friend's 12 year old child is constantly getting low grades in school. Any tips on how to persuade a child to study?

Just a suggestion, maybe you can personally assist him in doing his homeworks daily. Also, it might help if you teach him or her on how to manage his time properly. For example, After work, take merienda first and change clothes. After that, do the homework and review for tomorrow's lessons. A little bit of TV time or break. Dinner. So on and so forth. And of course, don't yell at the kid if he or she is slow to pickup the lessons. Patience will pay off. :) Hope this piece of advise will help. You might also want to wait for other parents' tips.

You may suggest your friend to make studying at home fun. Don't ever make the kid feel that reviewing is another burden to surpass, aside from school. As much as possible, studying shouldn't feel like an added workload. It pays to help the kid so that he/she feel a little support and don't forget to encourage. Should he/she need some alone time in studying, that's a good sign and take advantage of it.