The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the whole world to a standstill. The lockdown has led several governments to shut almost all the schools in different countries to control the spread of the virus. With schools being closed, students are facing difficulties in continuing their education especially the students of 10th and 12th grade who are going through an important stage of their life when they have to decide which stream or field to select for future studies.
Thus, in this context ARCH Foundation planned to conduct a series of webinars to provide career guidance to students and make them aware of different fields they can choose which they would like to pursue in the future. The aim was to make them aware of various options and possibilities in the field of Arts, Commerce, and Science.
Not only students from 10th and 12th grade who are undergoing the transitional phase, but their parents are also worried regarding the career choices that their children would make at this point in their lives, thus 800 plus participants were catered to who comprised of students from Government/aided and corporation schools, their parents and teachers.
As quoted by Nishant Shah, Director ARCH Development Foundation, “awareness among parents and teachers is a must to ensure proper support and motivation for the students as they form the basic interactive circle which largely decides what and how the child will study. This was also a way to make decision making concerning education a shared responsibility between the family and the students. Several topics were covered during this webinar. Students were provided with an insight into all the possible domains they can explore in Arts, Commerce, and Science. Thus the students were guided as to how to select a stream based on their area of interest. An insight into Diploma courses post 10th grade was also provided.”
To ensure that the students get a holistic experience of not only on theoretical lines but practical lines as well, ARCH Foundation collaborated with Abhyuday – a social body of IIT Bombay to motivate the children regarding the future possibilities and opportunities. Eminent personalities from Abhyuday collaborated with ARCH for the purpose and rendered their efforts and time.
A special session was organized for students from the National Institute for Open Schooling from Khambaliya. The focus of this session was to orient them about various employment and education opportunities they have post completing their study from NIOS and the speakers were from District Employment Office and Pidilite CSR Wing. Students generally have the idea that open schooling does not provide them with the necessary employment opportunities and to break that myth, this session was specially configured by ARCH to motivate children from open schools as well.
Kanika Salat, moderator of the series shared that many children surrounded by difficult situations at home were inclined towards earning for the family, resulting in the thoughts of them dropping out of schools. This is a problem that plagues our system as children are not aware of the opportunities that lie beyond proper education. We are glad we could train the young minds to see the horizon of opportunities that lie beyond good education which can in turn help them earn better in the future.”
Just providing the child with education is not the answer, providing them with the roadmap to where their education can lead them to, is the requirement. Through this effort, ARCH made it possible to make the minds of the children confusion-free to better think regarding what future discipline the children can enter into to make fruitful career choices. Together, a spark can be ignited and minds moved in a direction of collective growth and development!
