Pratham’s Second Chance Program is designed for girls that have dropped out of school and helps them prepare so that they can pass their 10th class (high school) board exam. These women had dropped out due to several challenges - sometimes issues within the system - which doesn’t allow children to repeat a grade that they haven’t passed and so leaves them unprepared to tackle board exam content, but other times due to issues such as financial hardships, or other family and cultural issues, which puts education as less of a priority.

Around the world and especially in India, girl child education is often times not a priority for parents - who often times have to choose between their children on which child to focus on - with the boy child typically getting more support. Spending time with the women that are in the program, however, it’s clear that these women feel empowered and are changing cultural norms which will hopefully have an impact in their community and carry that message that investing in a girl is indeed, an investment in the community and in the future.

After a period of advocation within various communities, women are encouraged to sign up for a foundation course, regardless of when or which class they dropped out at. The course is intensive but built upon a pedagogical approach that gauges whether the women can absorb the foundations of reading and arithmetic required to soldier through the board exam content. There are women that had not been back to school for 40 years and others who had dropped at grade 4 that had passed the foundation so the course is fairly accessible even for people that haven’t engaged in structured learning for a long time.

Once enrolled in the program, the women support each other, even bringing their children to class where everyone shares the responsibility of taking care of them. The overall pass rate for the program is between 70-90%.

One story that is particularly powerful is that of Sherine - an incredibly bright student having only dropped out two years ago at grade 8, the question of her passing the foundation course wasn’t a concern, but rather - winning the trust of her parents - who believed that the Second Chance Program was some kind of scam (who in their right mind would offer free courses? what was the catch?).

After repeatedly attending classes with Sherine, her father finally came to trust the program and let Sherine continue attending on her own. Sherine subsequently passed her board exams and at the time of this report, attended college in Hyderabad, studying Commerce and Economics.

She was so taken by the Second Chance and Pratham’s journey that she went one step further. Each evening, she runs one of Pratham’s urban camps for children in her community – teaching them to read, write and do mathematics – ensuring that other students build the foundations of learning that will give them the tools and the confidence to succeed, and serve as a roll model in her community for so many girls and their parents.

There’s the old saying - educate a boy and you educate an Individual, educate a woman and you educate a community. Sherine’s story is a living example of this saying.

Her parents are proud of her and proud of what they have collectively accomplish for their community.