Unicef slams teaching methods in preschools

BAD TREND Study reveals syllabus in govt, pvt schools has no emphasis on classroom practices

NEW DELHI: Given a choice between private preschools, anganwadi centres and government schools, there is a growing preference for private ones even in Indian villages, found a Unicef study. Also, reading, writing and arithmetic defined as 3Rs in the study don’t have much benefit in preschool education, as is commonly believed.

“Most schools followed the teaching of the 3Rs through rote and repetition, the other prevalent method being to get children to copy from the blackboard,” it pointed out. Also, there was no interaction between the children and teachers in government schools, which defeats the purpose of teaching.

“The overall picture emerging from the observation of classrooms is not very promising, as the curriculum followed by the

government and the private schools focuses on the formal teaching, with limited emphasis on classroom practices. Formal learning and teaching of the 3Rs in preschool was found to have a negative relationship with developmentally appropriate activities,” the study points out.

While the study endorses the positive impact of good quality preschool education, however, it also says training module should keep in mind socio-cultural and language background and also needs of special children.

It also highlights how due to shortage of teachers, multigrade situations are very common in government schools, making it difficult for the teachers to address the specific needs of the children.

The study covered about 14,000 children during the first round of fieldwork from three states: Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana.

This longitudinal study, followed a cohort of children over time – in this case over a period of 4 years, from age 4 to 8, during which it collected information from learning assessments.

As part of the study, villages were randomly sampled in each of the six districts included in the study (two districts per state).

As part of the study four-yearold children were purposively sampled and followed much more closely, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the quality of the institutions they attended and the social and cognitive outcomes they achieved.

Approximately, 70% of sampled children were attending a preschool at age of four.

The preference for private schools was evident even at the preschool level.

“Despite various incentives being offered by the government system in terms of free midday meals, uniforms, etc, parental preference was largely for the private sector. Parents were willing to pay fees for what they considered ‘better quality’ and for English medium education,” the study points out.

There were also instances of children moving from preschool to primary grades and back again, and/or moving back and forth between government and private schools.

This state of flux was observed across all three states. It was only by age 8 that primary school enrolment stabilised at over 90% across the sample.