Anganwadi educators should be empowered to become early childhood educators, tasked with the responsibility of laying a strong foundation to help the millions of children in India grow smarter, says Sashwati Banerjee
In India, there are 164.48 million children between 0-six years of age and over 60 per cent of them don’t have any access to pre-school education and care. This is further compounded by poor nutritional status, high infant mortality, lack of regulation and standardised policies, lack of trained early childhood educators and infrastructure. Despite the recent Government initiatives, including a National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy, approved in 2013, millions of young children remain bereft of high-quality early childhood education.
There are about 1.053 million Anganwadi Centres (AWC) in India providing a range of services addressing the health, nutritional and educational needs of young children. In 2016, the Ministry of Women and Child Development raised its target of building AWCs by 100 per cent, thereby increasing the number to one lakh annually.
While this is a commendable move, it’s also critical to equip these centres with necessary high-quality educational materials and building the capacity of the Anganwadi educators in order to ensure that these centres are able to better prepare children for school and for life.
The real picture, however, differs a little, as these AWCs, which are the largest provider of ECCE in the country, continue to focus on the provision of nutrition through mid-day meals which are undoubtedly a significant component of the scheme, while the education in these centres is taking a back seat.
The limited capacity of AWCs in India and the educators’ inability to provide high-quality education to the young learners has resulted in millions of children staying deprived of information that can help them grow smarter.
Anganwadis are the first learning centres that a child is exposed to and hence ensuring the holistic development of children at these centres is critical. This is a dual challenge as it involves parents on one end and the educators at the other. There needs to be enough motivation among parents, beyond free meals, to send their child to the AWCs. Additionally, it’s equally significant to strengthen the capacity of Anganwadi educators by providing them high-quality content, followed by regular training to use the content to engage and educate children.
In today’s day and age, it’s critical that our children grow with 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking and technology literacy in order to thrive and survive in a global economy. While the challenges are multiple and systemic changes are required, can media and digital technology play a role to improve overall quality of ECCE as well as equip children to learn the 21st century skillsIJ
A large group of organisations working on education reform in India suggest that digital technology could potentially be the disruption that is required to move the needle on pre-primary and primary education.
An experiment by Sesame Workshop India in the AWCs of Uttar Pradesh is showing how technology can be a great learning platform. In 300 AWCs of Shahjahanpur, children have been exposed to engaging digital games loaded on tablets, teaching them emergent literacy skills like vocabulary, letter knowledge, phonological awareness and much more. The initial response to this game-based approach to learning has been motivating with Anganwadi educators reporting higher attendance in their centres.
While technology can be an effective enabler, it can’t replace pedagogy. The next generation can thrive only with informed leadership and concerted action that prepares them to learn, share and cohabit. This requires the curriculum, infrastructure and teacher training, all cohesively knitted together and delivered to children.
In order to improve the existing conditions at the AWCs and to undertake intensive capacity-building, we need a buy-in from several key stakeholders. Backing the education tools with creative, engaging and high-quality content is critical to ensure motivation among parents to send their child to AWCs.
Most importantly, the Anganwadi educators should be empowered to become early childhood educators, tasked with the responsibility of laying a strong foundation to help the millions of children grow smarter, stronger and kinder in the 21st century.
(The writer is Managing Director, Sesame Workshop India)