|
Early Childhood Care and Educarion
50 Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Centres had been opened with 35 children at each Centre. More than 3,400 children under the age group of 3 to 5 years have been covered in the programme, more than half of them being girls. A team of international experts from Switzerland, Holland and Nepal has provided in-depth training on "learning through play" approach to our staffs which has improved teaching-learning methodology. Out of 50 such centres, 30 centres are continuing at present.
This gives the opportunity for the most disadvantaged children to develop their full potential, to build necessary life skills and more positive attitudes towards learning, thereby increasing their chances of success in further education and in life.
The play-way method or learning through play is a methodology in our centre for imparting education to our children. The playful and movement-based methods build safe, interactive and stimulating learning environments that enable children to learn by doing, solve problems, explore, be active and get involved in their learning. It encourages creative skills and self-expression.
We make learning easy and enjoyable. Each child is given equal opportunity for full participation. We provide more opportunities for each child to learn the way they feel easier. The playful approach facilitates holistic child development (cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, fine and gross motor skills). It is true that contents and concepts of each and every subject cannot be introduced through this method. But we believe that learning through play is most suitable method for the pre-primary level children.
Educational aids are an integrated component in any classroom. The benefits of educational aids include helping learners improve reading comprehension skills. It also engages student's other senses since there are no limits in what aids can be utilized when supplementing an activity.
In our ECCE centres, we use different kind of educational aids which is prepared with the materials locally available in the village and is cheap to afford for the use of children in their daily learning process. Learning aids are versatile and can be used for different activities to encourage self-sufficiency. All the handmade toys posses an educational value, appeal to the children, instigate exploration and are child-proof. Learning aids effectively help children to co-relate the learning in the centre from the physical world.
When a child enrolled at the ECCE Centre reaches to 5 years of age, s/he is admitted in class 1 in a nearby primary school. Only 1% of the children have dropped out of the programme. An assessment looking at the developmental milestones children have reached showed that, on average, they are doing quite well in terms of their cognitive, physical and social-emotional development.
ECCE services also benefit parents and caregivers of the children. We have involved the parents of all the children (especially the mothers). Even we organize a "Parental Education" session twice in a year which improve access to information regarding child rearing, child development, and to local service provisions.
Furthermore, we have organized a Mothers' Group at each Centre, in which all the mothers of ECCE children is a member and they attend the meeting which is arranged at the centre on monthly basis in which they come to know all the updates of their children.
One ECCE centre management committee has been formed at each ECCE Centre which consists of 10 members, out of which, 6 to 7 members are the mothers of ECCE children. The management committee work hand to hand with the facilitators and caretaker. The management committee had a vigil on the working of the centre. They do regular monitoring that how the centre activities move on. They help the staff in mobilizing the communities, lobbying with the block level officials for all 6 ICDS services, collaboration with government primary school for further admission as part of mainstreaming. The committee helps in the celebration of important days. We organize monthly meeting with the management committee in which all centre related issues are discussed and decision is been taken to overcome it in the coming days.
The capacity of the project management team has also been built up on monitoring and evaluation of the project and various monitoring formats are being used to monitor the success of the project at different levels.
Aanganwadi Workers (AWWs) are also being trained under the programme. The capacity building of the AWWs aimed at enabling them to use movement & play-based methods in the class in a purposeful way; thereby involving the children more into the learning activities, inciting their natural curiosity, and to increase their learning outcomes. The training covered the topics 1. Early Childhood Development and 2. Playful activities that enhance children’s development.
The detail of the project has been showcased at https://hundred.org/en/innovations/move-improve
Vocational training...
|
 |
| |
