The SCERT (State Council of Educational Research and Training) has suggested a weekly plan for tiny tots with 8 periods of 20 to 30 minutes under the ‘Pre-School Curriculum’.
The curriculum has been primarily framed from two documents of the NCERT — ‘The Preschool Guidelines’ and ‘The Preschool Curriculum’.
The timetable has been designed in such a way that kids will learn mathematical and environmental concepts, communication and literacy skills, language, art and aesthetics, good-bye circle and storytelling/ rhymes.
The schedule is divided between teacher-initiated planned activities and child-initiated free play which will lead to self-paced learning. The first 30 minutes are reserved for hygiene check-up and free conversation, while the next 40 minutes have been reserved for environmental and mathematical concepts and some free play.
Students would be made to recapitulate the day’s activities and encouraged to share the school experiences with their parents when they are home. A 30-minute slot has been dedicated for outdoor activities which will include different games to be played through self-initiatives.
The last period of 30 minutes again has been reserved for key skills to be addressed to children which includes vocabulary building, number sense, self-expression, sorting and matching, sequential thinking and classification.
Children will be assessed on 5 parameters — ‘sensory, perceptual and cognitive development’, ‘physical and motor development’, language, literacy and communication’, ‘creativity’ and ‘personal, social and emotional development’.
There is a stern direct that under no condition should children be made to take any form of test of examination — either written or oral. The purpose of the evaluation at pre-school stage is not to label the child as ‘pass’ or ‘fail’.
Assessment should focus only on the child’s strengths than deficits as it will pave a way for learning new skills.
The teachers will grade students as either ‘performs well’ or ‘need help’.
Kamalpreet Singh
Working as a freelance contributor for several news platforms over the years, Kamalpreet has a well-thriving interest in the education sector. Kamalpreet heads at the post of editor at BO Herald and he contributes his knowledge and expertise in reporting Education News.
