Empower and educate teenage mothers in Chile

Unlike her daughters, Marita grew up in El Carmen, a small rural town near Chillán, in southern Chile. She was the youngest of seven siblings, and her family's economic difficulties kept her out of school when she had barely learned to divide. "I had to walk a long way to go to school, leave early, walk alone in the countryside," she remembers. She dropped out of school in sixth grade and, according to her, no one cared.



Marita (51) is the mother of Sarely, 28, and Jackie, 17. Her life has not been easy. After pairing up with Sarely's father, they lived together for eight years in a relationship marked by poverty, violence and constant disqualification. "He took what I earned when I started working. He was an alcoholic and violent man," she remembers. This situation led her to make a drastic decision: leave that relationship and move to Santiago, bringing her two daughters with her.

-How did you raise your daughters?

"Working and looking for help, without excuses. My youngest daughter, Jackie, faced bullying at school for her shyness and suffered panic attacks, so I sought support at the Betania School of the Súmate Foundation, where they took her in. Before, we lived in Macul, which was a quieter place. But a housing opportunity took us to La Pintana, where violence is more palpable and gunshots are often heard. That affected my daughter, but thanks to the support of Súmate, she now speaks more, is happier, and dreams of being a veterinarian. Who would have thought?"

Thank you for allowing more children and teenagers to carry their dream backpacks!

• This Christmas, you can continue to help people in extreme poverty. We invite you to give a Christmas dinner to an elderly person in poverty, here!

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• Learn Marita's story.

The Observatory for Educational Trajectories in Chile presented two important reports on public policies. These are two solid analyzes that help understand why many students do not complete their educational career successfully.

The activity featured two guest panelists: Ngaire Honey, associate researcher at the Center for Educational Justice (CJE) of the Catholic University, and Patricio Rodríguez, researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) of the University of Chile.

The presentation was led by Francisca Morales, Unicef Education Officer in Chile.

LACK OF INFORMATION AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY
The first report was focused on the development of a registry of public policies that impact the protection of educational trajectories by educational level. That is, comply more or less linearly with nursery, school and higher education.

The analysis included aspects related to the General Education Law, the Inclusion Law; the New Public Education; the Quality Assurance System; and other policies and programs.

The second report carried out an analysis of the critical nodes of these educational policies, also differentiated by educational level. Topics linked to coverage and assistance in early childhood education, recovery of educational trajectories and technical-professional trajectories in school education, and financing and accreditation in higher education were included.

Regarding the knots in the educational trajectories, researcher Ngaire Honey from the CJE commented that one of the findings from having interviews with students who graduate from eighth grade and must look for a new school, is the need for more information about the establishments to which they are enrolled. who can enter to continue their studies in secondary education:

“Students miss having more contact with directors and students, more information about where they could go.”

Likewise, she commented on how teenage pregnancy is one of the major concerns that exist in public schools due to the difficulty it has represented for the continuity of the students' educational career.

RELINK WITH THE SCHOOL
Researcher Patricio Rodríguez from CIAE began his speech by pointing out: “We all know that our educational system is competitive and competition means that cooperation between establishments is not stimulated. What does this mean? That schools are always alone to solve the same problems.”

He also stated that the biggest challenge this year in educational matters is the reconnection of students with school: “One of the great shortcomings that the pandemic left us is the fact of being at home, it told us to lock ourselves up and somehow we lost the sense of going to school and we also lost the coexistence with others, especially the younger children,” he warned.

The Observatory for Educational Trajectories in Chile is an initiative that brings together various organizations that work collaboratively to prevent school exclusion in Chile.

It is currently made up of the Educational Justice Center; the Súmate Foundation of Hogar de Cristo; the Center for Advanced Research in Education of the University of Chile; the Research Center for Inclusive Education of the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, EDUINCLUSIVA; and the Department of Educational Policy and School Development, belonging to the Faculty of Education of the Alberto Hurtado University.