The central government, for the first time, has released the recommended curriculum to be taught to children aged three to six years, which will boost pre-school education in 14 lakh anganwadis across the country.
Course outline
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has released the National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education 2024 titled ‘Aadharshila’ in line with the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework.
- Aadharshila is a comprehensive 48-week curriculum for children aged three to six years in Anganwadis.
- There are 14 lakh Anganwadis in India, which serve as nodal points in villages for the health and nutritional needs of expectant mothers and children. The Ministry of Women and Child Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, envisages that these Anganwadis should also function as pre-schools, where children are given basic education, thereby strengthening their basic concepts of literacy and numeracy.
Benefits of implementing the course
- The research, which followed 42,000 Indian children up to primary classes over almost five years, showed that children who received education early in life were likely to perform better in school
- They are also better adapted psychologically than their peers who have not received any formal education before the age of six.
- This curriculum helps develop listening skills, vocabulary building, fostering imagination, describing, following directions, creativity, social development, self-expression and self-esteem, which helps the child to enter class 1 with ease. Will help.
- Training of Anganwadi workers towards providing early childhood education was started by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in May last year under the ‘Poshan Bhi, Padhai Bhi’ scheme and this curriculum document will now become a part of the ongoing trainings, Which will help Anganwadi workers to become pre-school trainers.
- So far, 6,758 Anganwadi workers in 329 districts of 32 states have been trained as state level master trainers under the ‘Poshan Bhi, Padhi Bhi’ programme.
Running calendar
- The curriculum includes a weekly based play calendar starting with a four-week start, which includes educational activities that help children transition from home to the Anganwadi center by engaging them in fun and free play.
- The next 36 weeks are spent in exploration, free play, conversation, creation and appreciation, reflection which includes a variety of activities including storytelling, singing poems, arts and crafts etc.
- The final eight weeks are spent repeating and reinforcing the previous week’s learning with worksheets and observation of children’s performance.
- The activities and timetable are divided according to age, including detailed age-appropriate specifications of materials required, variations, notes for the teacher, targeted curriculum goals and observations of children’s interests and abilities to be achieved.
- Children in the age group of three to six years come to Anganwadi which has a mixed crowd. The curriculum aims to deliver a minimum of 48 weeks of education over a three-year period.
Basis for states
- The national framework spanning three to six years will serve as the basis for states to develop their own culturally appropriate curricula that will provide solutions to children’s school challenges.