To impart early childhood education in tribal language, as many as 7,000 Anganwadi workers and 250 supervisors were trained by the Department of Women and Child Development with support of the Bernand Van leer Foundation.
The training programme which was launched since April 1 was wound up at a closing ceremony where WCD Minister Prafulla Samal and Secretary Vishal Dev were present.
In order to scale a model of mother tongue based multi lingual early childhood education in 7,202 Anganwadi centres in 12 tribal districts of Odisha, a MoU was signed between the WCD Department and BvlF in June, 2016.
The partnership aimed at scaling up mother tongue based multi lingual early childhood education in Anganwadi centres so that children experience improved learning environments, demonstrate better language proficiency and make successful transition to primary schools.
It also aimed at strengthening the skills and capacity of Government policymakers, managers and frontline workers to deliver high quality mother tongue based early learning programmes and strengthening the use of Anganwadi centres as platforms for parental and community engagement focused on the holistic development of children under six years of age.
Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Sundergarh, Kalahandi, Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Kandhamal, Malkangiri and Rayagada are the districts covered under this programme. Anganwadi workers of these 12 districts participated in the training programme which was being imparted in 10 tribal languages that included Santhali, Juanga, Munda, Bonda, Kui, Kuvi, Koya, Oram, Saura and Kisan languages. The training module for the entire programme was developed by CECED supported by BvlF.