Why there's little fun in pre-school education
Although the prime purpose of pre-schools is gentle introduction to socialisation and co-operative play, anxiety about downstream primary school admissions is transforming them into stressful tuition centres. Vidya Pandit investigates
First, the good news. learning has become real fun for a small minority of tiny tots from upscale households. Some pre-schools in urban India have miraculously transformed from prosaic daycare centres into hi-tech, multi-media rich playpens which genuinely facilitate child development in friendly, interactive environments. But on the flip side, while parents are spoilt for choice with pre-schools ranging from those run in garages by bored housewives to international chains using the most contemporary pedagogies and equipment to induct children into the schooling process, there are no regulations to monitor them.
This is perhaps because there is considerable confusion in the public mind between pre-schools, nurseries and kindergarten — all of which are clubbed together as play schools requiring little supervision. Technically, pre-schooling is stage one in education and is followed by kindergarten, the latter often divided into lower and upper KG which might include nursery school. Stage one prepares a child to part from parents and begins the process of developing social skills such as peer interaction, whereas kindergarten and nursery programmes introduce infants to skill-sets they will need in primary school. These include learning to read, do math, and to begin to understand the world and how it works. But while educationists make a technical distinction between pre-schools and nurseries, classifying the former as institutions which encourage play and socialisation, and nurseries as educational institutions, in practical usage and popular perception, the two have converged.
India’s experiments with early childhood learning date back to 1975-76 when 33 projects were initiated under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) of the ministry of women and child development. Operationalised as pre-schools, known as balwadis and anganwadis in rural, and urban slum areas, the prime objective of ICDS (for which a provision of Rs.4,087 crore has been made in Budget 2006-07) is to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group 0-6 and lay the foundation for their psychological, physical and social development resulting in a reduction of mortality, morbidity and malnutrition.
However efforts to integrate early childhood education into activities of these centres have begun only in recent years. It is noteworthy that even to this day the Union ministry of human resource development, while housing the departments of elementary education and literacy, and secondary and higher education, has no room for pre-school education. Even the Right to Education Bill, 2005 defines "child" as an individual over six years and not more than 14 years of age.
The only mention of pre-school education in RTE 2005 is a provision which stipulates: "The appropriate government shall endeavour to provide facilities for pre-school education in State and fully-aided schools for children between the ages of 3 and 6 years, if such facilities are not already being provided through ICDS or other government programmes, in proximity to such schools."
Today there are 4,200 ICDS centres covering community development blocks and 273 urban slum pockets. The programme reaches out to 22.9 million children (under six years of age) from socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Of these 12.5 million children (aged 3-6 six years) participate in centre-based pre-school activities. Another 10 million have access to private sector facilities. But in a country of 157 million children in the 0-6 age group this provision is grossly inadequate. From the 17th and 18th centuries when European intellectuals such as Comenins and Rousseau espoused the early socialisation of children to prepare them for learning, research has yielded abundant data which establishes that early childhood learning is critical to academic and general success in later years. In underdeveloped countries, pre-school education also tends to compensate for early home and hearth deprivations by providing a stimulating social environment. They ready children to meet the demands of formal schooling and positively impact the enrollment and retention of girl children in particular within school systems.
But while hitherto early childhood or pre-school education has suffered benign neglect and has been left to the informal sector by governments and young parents, with greater awareness among child psychologists and family counsellors that years 3-6 are every child’s most formative and intensive learning period, India’s new generation of middle class parents are beginning to insist upon structurally rational and well-designed pre-school education for children. And in the new, can-do era of economic liberalisation, demand for creative pre-school education has attracted suppliers of it.
A case in point is the KidZee pre-schools of the Mumbai-based Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS), a subsidiary of Zee group of companies which is a big name in media, particularly cable television. Started in 2003, the number of (franchised) KidZee schools has grown to 375 countrywide with an aggregate enrollment of 15,000 children in the 3-6 age group. KidZee schools’ colourful standardised classrooms offer threading fruit sets and beads, touch board, sound box, safe finger paints and zipper frames to encourage children to awaken their curiosities through concept clarity.
"Early childhood is the foundation period of all human learning and thus requires national policy attention. In our KidZee schools we have taken great pains to create environments for the optimum development of pre-school children. This includes developing a child-centric curriculum which encourages spontaneous learning in individual and group activities. Our carefully designed study programme enhances learning and development in safe and healthy environments and prepares kids to develop socially and emotionally," says A.K. Khetan, chief executive of ZILS.
But in the new age of post-liberalisation enlightenment driven by genext middle class parents who accord priority to children’s education, even less capital intensive, stand-alone pre-schools are rapidly upgrading themselves. Shobha Singh, an alumna of Montessori International London who founded the Lucknow-based Early Childhood Learning Centre (ECLC) in 1960, combines the principles of the Montessori system with her own experience to create conditions for every child to learn according to her own pace and temperament. ECLC has 65 children in the age group 2-5 in its playgroup, nursery and preparatory sections. A novel learning innovation of this highly respected pre-school is that interactions with people from various trades viz, cobblers, postmen, vegetable vendors and field trips to the fire station and zoo are knitted into its curriculum.
Box 1
Early childhood school systems
Kindergarten
Developed by German educationist Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel in the 1820s, the kindergarten (‘garden of children’) system of early childhood education encourages play and the use of ‘gifts’ (play materials) and ‘occupations’ (activities). In educational environments it involves practical work and the direct use of materials created for children to engage with and understand the world. Play is looked upon as creative activity through which children become aware of their place in the world.
Froebel developed special materials (‘gifts’ such as shaped wooden bricks and balls) and a series of recommended ‘occupations’ as activities.
Montessori
One of the most popular yet most misunderstood systems of early childhood education, it was developed in 1906 by Maria Montessori, a professor of anthropology at the University of Rome, who based her philosophy on her experiences of a children’s home she started in San Lorenzo. The system stresses the uniqueness of each child and is based on the premise that children are entirely different from adults in the ways they develop and think. They aren’t just "adults in small bodies".
The pedagogy focuses on the needs, talents, gifts, and individuality of each child. Every child controls the pace, topic and repetition of lessons independent of the rest of the class or teacher. The philosophy underpinning Montessori pedagogy is that children who experience the joy of learning become happy, confident, and fulfilled.
Another cornerstone of the Montessori method is encouraging early childhood self-reliance and independence. Montessori school children are encouraged to dress themselves, help cook, clean, put away their toys and clothes and actively participate in household, neighbourhood and school activities.
Reggio Emilia
Evolved in an Italian city of the same name after World War II, this pedagogy focusses on project-oriented curriculums. Extensive parental and community involvement is central to this system which pays great attention to organisation of the physical environment which is looked upon as the ‘third teacher’. Thus classrooms open into a central courtyard, kitchens are transparent, and access to the surrounding community is assured through wall-size windows, courtyards, and doors. The attention of children and adults is captured through the use of mirrors (on walls, floors, and ceilings), photographs, and children’s work is accompanied by transcriptions of their discussions.
The curriculum is characterised by problem-solving among peers, with numerous opportunities for creative thinking and exploration. Teachers often work on projects with small groups of children, while the rest of the class engages in a wide variety of self-selected activities typical of pre-school classrooms.
High/ Scope
Developed in the 1960s by American pyschologist David P. Wiekart, this is a cognitively-oriented pedagogy which advocates that children should be actively involved in their own learning. Adults working with children should regard themselves facilitators or partners rather than managers or supervisors. The objective of High/ Scope is to lift lives through education.
An important element of the High/ Scope method is the plan-do-review sequence. Children first plan what they want to play with and how they want to play (this can be done informally in small groups). Only after they have made a plan, however vague, of what they want to do can they go and play. Then, after play, the children form small groups again, and with an adult discuss what they were doing and whether it was successful.
However decades of licence-permit raj in the highly regulated downstream primary and secondary school education system which has discouraged — and continues to discourage — private initiatives in education, and severe capacity shortages in privately promoted schools have adversely impacted pre-schools across the country. With the country’s estimated 750,000 government primary schools characterised by shoddy infrastructure, abysmal learning outcomes and chronic teacher absenteeism, they have become no-go zones for the nation’s fast expanding 300 million strong middle class. Consequently the pressure for admission into private sector primary-cum-secondaries — especially into affordably priced church-run missionary schools — has reached explosion point.
Therefore pre-schools are increasingly being evaluated and assessed as springboards for facilitating entry into the ‘best’ primary-cum-secondaries. "A growing number of parents are in such a hurry to get their children into formal school that they demand we hand over our ‘syllabus’ in advance, so they can coach children at home as well. Very often this makes the child extremely conscious and stubborn at home, while she is much more relaxed and open with us. This has prompted us to introduce parent education programmes to make them understand that that’s not the purpose of responsible pre-schools," says Shobha Singh. But although the prime purpose of pre-schools is gentle introduction to socialisation and cooperative play, anxiety about downstream admissions has caused parents to take a rather constricted view of pre-schooling, and in many cases they have forced pre-school managements to change with the times.
For instance in 2005 Lucknow’s CBSE-affiliated co-ed Avadh School (estb. 1999) inaugurated its kindergarten section styled Avadh Smarteez. The latter’s management was clear that its objective was to broaden each child’s learning experience through joyful interaction in group and individual activities, experiments in play, music, and crafts for children to develop socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. However, several months later, dissatisfied parents demanded that their children be assigned ‘homework’ and that teachers concentrate on imparting "concrete" reading and writing basics, rather than abstract creativity and cognitive skills to their 3-5 year olds.
"Increasingly parents are becoming averse to liberal learning and innovation. For them, even a pre-school has value only if a child learns the alphabet and two digit numbers in the very first year. That they are killing curiosity and imagination in the process is not a concern. Their sole objective of sending children to pre-school seems to be to prepare them for entry into good schools. Even though our kindergarten students don’t have to take admission tests, parents are constantly comparing their children with others and are paranoid about their child ‘knowing’ less than children in other schools," laments Nandini Bidalia, principal of Avadh Smarteez.
Yet the debate about whether pre-school education needs to be easy-going and joyful, or curriculum centred is hardly new. While advocates of liberal child-centrism argue that fostering qualities like self-confidence, etiquette and conversation skills ensure academic success later, advocates of curriculum-centred pre-school education argue that academic learning can never begin too soon. They contend that academic preparedness develops children’s confidence and social skills as a byproduct.
Preeti Singh, a former educrat and currently principal of Lucknow’s well established Red Hill School, subscribes to the liberal philosophy, which in her opinion self induces children into formal schooling. "Pre-schools need to provide happy environments for children to be attracted to the idea of attending school. The role of a pre-school is not to teach the 3 R’s, but to encourage little children to healthily interact with peers so that the foundation for formal learning in classrooms is built. These are behavioural qualities that no formal school has time to teach. Unfortunately a pre-school’s image is determined by its reputation as a successful feeder school. At Red Hill we actively discourage this perception," says Singh.
Yet fun and play schools such as Red Hill are being reduced to a minority. Terrified by the prospect of their children being stuck in second tier schools, parents are forcing tiny pre-schoolers into ‘coaching’ classes to clear the admission tests of first tier private schools. Comments Brenda Kaul who runs a popular tuition centre for pre-schoolers: "My classes develop reading and writing skills of children, while pre-schools concentrate on play-centred activities. And though I don’t believe in rejecting children, I don’t take in kids whose parents aren’t well educated themselves. It is a waste of time given the reality that the top schools demand proof of the educational qualification of parents," says Kaul.
With tiny tots under obligation to perform well in interviews for admission into the static number of best private primary-cum-secondaries — govern-ment (especially state government) schools are being abandoned by all except the poorest of the poor — the great majority of pre-schools are gradually transforming into tuition centres which prepare 3-5 year olds for admission interviews. Psychologist Ravi Bhushan cautions parents against applying early pressure on young children. "Excessive pressure and early stress could put children off school within the first year itself because the routine becomes repetitive. Between the ages of 2-5, children need family comfort and support. Unfortunately parents in middle class nuclear families prefer to send children to pre-school rather than letting them stay at home with maid servants," says Bhushan.
Sheila Simlai, former headmistress of Lucknow’s La Martiniere Boys’ College and education advisor to upscale nursery schools, squarely blames upwardly mobile parents for shirking their responsibilities towards children. "Two and three are ages when children need a lot of mollycoddling. Yet at this age when they can barely speak, they are thrust into school to learn the alphabet. This tendency could be condoned if a mother has erratic working hours. Otherwise there is no point in putting a small child into pre-school, which in the absence of regulations usually do more harm than good. Abroad the need of a child for her mother in the early years is respected, and government grants ensure that working mothers don’t suffer financially when they stay home to nurture their infants," says Simlai.Some of these early pressures on infants could be automatically eased if the admission process into primary schools is made easier. The Delhi high court in a judgement delivered earlier this year has attempted to do so, but the well intentioned directive which suggests replacing interviews of children with ‘interactions’ with parents has already drawn a howl of protest from the most prestigious public schools determined to maintain their exclusivity. (see box p.58)
Lina Ashar founder-director of Kangaroo Kids, an Australia-affiliated institution which offers pre-schooling in 11 cities countrywide, is a champion of examinations-free open admission policies. "Education is a fundamental right of every child; social justice can only be achieved by an open entry system of admission. Children should be admitted in schools irrespective of their social, cultural and economic backgrounds. Each child is gifted with certain innate skills. The onus of tapping their inherent potential is upon us as teachers, academics and educational institutions. Providing children with safe and stress-free environments right from their pre-school years is critical for their overall growth," she says.
Box 2
Hot potato issue
With the number of applicants from India’s fast-expanding middle class hugely outstripping additional capacity creation in private schools — crowded, ill-equipped government schools notorious for poor learning outcomes and chronic teacher absenteeism are no-go zones for middle class India — interview of children and/ or parents competing for school admissions has become a hot potato issue. Educationists and social activists contend it’s cruel to subject nursery-primary stage children to stressful interviews. Interview of parents to gauge the suitability of their children for admission attracts the charge that they are ploys to assess parents’ net worth with the objective of extracting donations and contributions.In January 2003, a single judge bench of the Delhi high court rejected a petition praying that interviews of parents and children for school admission purposes be banned. Ashok Agarwal, advocate for the Social Jurist, a lawyer’s collective, filed an appeal against the judgement contending that interviewing children of ages 3-4 is violation of human rights and tantamount to cruelty to children.
On May 6, 2004 the high court issued a public notice to all schools, including unaided private schools seeking their assistance on this "question of larger public importance". The court also directed the attorney general to file his reply on the best method of admitting children into nursery schools. While rejecting the option of testing and interviewing pre-primary students, the AG suggested interactions/ interviews with parents instead. Moreover he contended that school managements don’t have the ‘right to choose’ children as schools are public institutions, and are obliged to devise open access admission systems.
Social Jurist argued that parent interviews would lead to biases in favour of the relatively well-heeled and that a draw of lots would be a more scientific method of admissions. Meanwhile school managements contend that they have a right to choose their students and that education cannot be compared to a selection of a lottery number.
On March 1, 2006, after much dilly dallying, 270 unaided private schools grouped under the banner of Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Schools submitted a 12 page report written by a five member expert committee.
The experts favoured parent interviews by schools and formation of admission committees. The committees would classify each application according to parents’ occupation, so schools can include children from varying family backgrounds in each class. Parents’ educational qualifications and professional achievements are given 10 percent weightage with former students getting special preference. Moreover private schools will give 25 percent weightage to residential proximity to each school, 30 per- cent weightage will be given to parent interview while child observation will get 25 percent. The report of the expert committee will be appraised by the court on April 5.
In this connection it is noteworthy that in 1997, the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra passed the Maharashtra Pre-school Centres (Regulation of Admission) Act which abolished all interviews, tests and donations for kindergarten/ nursery admissions. Under pressure from school managements the Act was repealed within a year.
Other educationists insist that it’s best to interview parents rather than their children. Mahrook Singh, principal of Delhi’s popular Mother’s International School subscribes to this school of thought. "Interaction with parents is necessary because the school and admitted child will share a 12 year relationship. While it’s perhaps unfair to quiz parents about financial status and salaries, pre-admission communi-cation with them is essential for a healthy sharing of philosophy between school managements and parents. Considering the demand-supply disequilibrium between applicants and schools, some selection criteria have to be employed," says Singh.
Against this backdrop of the great majority of pre-schools imperceptibly morphing into tuition centres which visit early stress on infants, there are calls for the Central government to draft a standardised stress-free curriculum for the fast-multiplying private pre-schools and for ICDS balwadis and anganwadis. Particularly since the Right to Education Bill 2005 does not prescribe any norms or regulations for education and/ or development of children in the 0-5 age group. Neither does the Bill prescribe any criteria for promotion of pre-schools.
However K.S. Natarajan, promoter of the Chennai-based Krida Foundation, a non-government organisation engaged in education research and teacher training cautions against government intervention in pre-school education. "Government regulation should at best be restricted to prescribing minimum standards. There is no need for government to regulate pre-school education. Instead an accreditation system monitored by a consortium of well-established pre-schools could be a dynamic and bold initiative," advises Natarajan.
This proposal receives some support from Catherine Rustomji, a corporate trainer and certified Reggio teacher from Oxford Brooks University, UK and founder-director of Bangalore’s reputable Gintara Play School and Childcare Centre. "Pre-school education in India is totally unmonitored and deregulated with zero government involvement, no research on curriculum and little parental interest. Therefore there’s a good case for standardisation and regulation, preferably self regulation," she says.
Typically most of the educationists interviewed for this feature — and India’s timid educationists in general — have little to say about careless and negligent Central and state government policies which deny the great majority of India’s 415 million children easy access to acceptable quality school education. Quite clearly the prime cause of a multiplying number of pre-schools which should ideally provide play-filled early socialisation experiences for children in the 3-5 age group, transforming into regular tuition centres is the growing shortage of capacity in downstream primary-cum-secondaries.
With ill-managed, poorly equipped government schools out of bounds for post-liberalisation India’s fast- expanding middle class, and private educationists officially discouraged from augmenting private school capacity by the licence-permit-quota policies of the Central and state governments, middle class parents are increasingly beginning to suffer admission anxiety at pre-school stages. The plain truth is intensifying government control of private sector initiatives in school education is choking supply. That’s the elephant in the room that India’s purblind educationists and policy-makers are unable to see.
And until they are able to excise this blindspot, India’s little children will continue to suffer. Even at the supposedly fun-filled pre-school stage.
With Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore); Ronita Torcato (Mumbai); Priyanka Gupta (Delhi) & Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)