In order to improve the quality of education, the district administration of Chaibasa in collaboration with a Mumbai based organisation called Titli- Together in Transforming Learning in India — has been training Anganwadi workers and enabling them in developing key skills to provide non- formal pre- school education to children aged between 2- 5 years.
The initiative which was started in January 2019 till before the lockdown was imposed in March 2020 has trained as many as 850 workers, helpers and supervisors as early educators across the district. As a part of the seven- day training process, the workers are equipped with developing appropriate activities using naturally available resources. The project aims to not just improve the attendance of the children at the Anganwadi centres but also enhance their learning outcome and make them ready for primary school.“The initiative is a part of the big plan to revive the social welfare infrastructure which includes creating new Anganwadi centres and also repairing the existing ones. The Anganwadi sevikas are generally not given training from the teaching point of view but with this project we have managed to transform the centres into early childhood education centres.
There has also been an increase in the attendance of the children while a positive change can also be seen in the motivation level of the sevikas and sahayikas. Initially children would just visit the centres for meals but now they are showing a keen interest in education as well. The project was also published by Niti Aayog as one of the best practices being implemented,” said Deputy Commissioner Chaibasa Arava Rajkamal. During the training process, the trainers from Titli provided hands- on experience to the candidates and inspired them to implement similar practices with children at their respective centres.
The trainees experienced the activities as children in a classroom and later conducted similar ones with toddlers in the presence of the Titli team members. Sessions on how to communicate with parents on the child’s daily routine at the centre were also held.
A time table was also provided to the candidates for time management and clarity of activities to be conducted in a day. In order to motivate Anganwadi workers for the programme, trainees who had already been a part of week- long sessions were further invited to share their experiences with the new batch.“Initially on reaching the centre, we would start looking for books to teach children some very basic things like alphabets and numbers. After being trained, I have realised that basic knowledge can be provided with the naturally available resources at hand and that too in the child’s mother tongue,” said a worker after being trained requesting anonymity.“Working with Anganwadis has helped us experience the beauty of learning from nature. It has been one of the most satisfying experiences for us till date.
Such training will help states and districts to achieve the objectives of the New Education Policy 2020 to enable universal access for high quality Early Childhood Care and Education across the country,” said the Founder and CEO of Titli Pranjal Modi.