Family Academy – Learning for all

Mother-of-three Engely is delighted with the knowledge her daughter, Charmy Angel, has gained in the three weeks she has been attending ICM’s Family Academy. Engely hopes a stronger academic foundation will give Charmy Angel a confidence that Charmy’s older sister lacked when she started primary school. “I want my children to learn as early as possible, before they begin school,” Engely said. If children don’t receive a good foundation before they start school, they are more likely to be absent and to drop out of school in the future. When children drop out of school, it is very difficult for them to ever achieve their potential or realize their dreams, and many children who don’t graduate from school will remain in poverty. ICM’s Family Academy is a way to level the playing field so that poor children are not disadvantaged when they start school. Family Academy takes a two-generational approach to early education over an eight-month program. A personal coach, educational supplies and training empower parents to become their child’s first teachers through a math and phonics curriculum. Through home teaching visits twice a week, along with a Values, Health and Livelihood curriculum for parents, Family Academy gives children a great start to their academic life by preparing them to enter the public school system. Invested and engaged from the very beginning of their child’s learning, parents encourage their children to start and remain in school. The trial results are positive, revealing that 83% of parents feel better equipped as parents, and after completing Family Academy, children show a 635% improvement in math skills*, which means that Family Academy graduates start school with above average math skills. Engely and Charmy Angel are experiencing these same results. Just two weeks in to the Family Academy, Charmy Angel can identify numbers and their place in the number line. Engely, who takes time each day to teach her daughter, has also found the program beneficial to the mother-daughter relationship. She shares, ‘I was busy with chores and didn’t know what I would talk to Charmy about. This teaching gives me the opportunity to spend time with my daughter.’ Within days of the parent-child coaching at Family Academy, Engely noticed her daughter was changing. ‘Before, Charmy Angel was very stubborn. But after just two weeks of me working each day with her, she will rest her body against me, and she talks to me, not just her friends. I’m excited about our relationship now and not worried about what she is thinking, because now she stops and tells me. It’s so different and so much better!’   *2016 study conducted by Chinese University Hong Kong