Exam Prep and Career Counsel for Kids at Chalice Sponsor Site in India
The Tamil sponsor site has begun a program aimed at career counseling and exam preparation. The staff and teachers had noticed a crippling fear among the older students about their higher-level exams – the exams that would dictate the students’ prospects for post-secondary institutions and programs. The extreme anxiety about the exams was leading to poor performance and insufficient marks to continue into desirable fields of study. Fear of exams was also leading to students dropping out, and in extreme cases, suicide.
This issue was compounded by the cultural trend of parents taking their daughters out of school by the tenth grade. The parents feared that after that age, school was a dangerous place where their girls might become engaged in premature sexual activity, or choose to run away from the family. Any scandal or underage pregnancy would sour the reputation of the entire family. The families believed that bringing their daughters home and securing them in young marriage was the right choice for the security and stability for the girl and the entire family.
The career counseling sessions sought to change both of these negative trends. Through motivational sessions, they instilled in the children the real value of pursuing education and skills training after high school. They brought in people from various industries and instructors and alumni from the Skills@Chalice programs to discuss the real opportunities available to students in their regions, and the commitment required to achieve specific goals. The sessions were kept to small groups of students, to maximize the focused attention of the instructor and allow each child was to ask questions and express concerns. Tutoring and remedial programs have been set up in the schools for children with learning difficulties or students seeking extra time to focus on exam prep.
As a result, anxiety has gone down significantly, and the trend in exam marks is improving. The young women are going home and speaking to their families, educating them about the benefits of allowing them to stay in school. The honor a girl would bring to a family if she was successful in a field such as engineering or IT dissipates the families’ fears of the girl falling into an unwanted lifestyle. The parents have re-focused their attention on supporting the girls through their exams.
Parents of students in Chalice child sponsorship programs are required to participate in Small Community Groups, or circle groups. As a result, they feel deep gratitude towards Chalice, which makes them more trusting and receptive to the “education first” message. Child marriage rates have decreased to almost none.
— Kate Mosher, Creative Specialist & Photographer at Chalice