NCERT norms to streamline early education of children

Running a pre-school or a lower primary section at a small accommodation with unqualified teachers and untrained staff could be a thing of the past if the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has its way.

To streamline early education of children in the age group of 3-8 years at pre-schools, lower primary schools and in  anganwadis across the country, the council has come up with a set of draft guidelines.

It has also  recommended the state governments to develop a regulatory mechanism to ensure "some degree of standardisation" of quality in the early education programme for children (up to  Class II), noting the responsibility of developing and implementing learning standards and a regulatory framework lies  with them.

The guidelines stipulate that all such schools, either run by the government or private entities, must have a minimum 35 square metres indoor space to accommodate a group of 25 children in one classroom.

Such school must also have adequate number of classrooms, storage space and "child-friendly toilets" with adequate open space and a boundary wall.

While the in-charge of such schools must have a bachelor's degree in any discipline along with a diploma or degree in early education and a minimum two years experience in teaching, teachers also must possess a diploma in education to teach at such schools.

"The location of such schools must be away from heavy traffic, ponds, well, ditches, nallahs, pollution, heaps of garbage, cattle shed/animal shelter, slush, stagnant water and uncovered drains," the council's draft guidelines stipulate.

Citing reasons for framing the draft guidelines, the council said that "a very large number" of pre-school children come to regular schools at the age of six with inadequate school preparedness.

"And, they tend to continue to school with low learning levels and higher probability of dropping out in the early primary classes," it added.

While the pre-primary centres face the problem of non-availability of teachers and inadequate infrastructure, especially in the government sector, there is also a lack of a national level standard pattern of pre-primary education program.

"Hence, there is need for children to be provided with developmentally appropriate early learning opportunities at pre-school and early primary stage in a continuum," the council noted.

As per the draft guidelines,  schools offering early education will have to maintain teacher-pupil ratio of 1:25 with one helper, who should  at least be a matriculate with experience in handling young children.