Start pre-primary classes at govt schools: panel

A committee, headed by Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, has favoured starting pre-primary classes at all government schools in the country.

It has also recommended provisions for early childhood education with primary classes at all schools, including those run by private entities.

"Introduce pre-primary education in all government schools as it makes children ready for school (education). Make provisions for early childhood education/primary education for all schools with primary classes," the 12-member sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) has recommended.

The recommendation assumes significance as the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) are toying with the idea.

The ministries in a recent joint communication to the states have asked them to "integrate" Anganwadi centres with government-run primary schools in their vicinity for early childhood education.

The MoWCD initiated a move in September to provide special training to Anganwadi workers to enable them to provide early childhood care and education to children at the pre-primary level.

The CABE, which is the highest advisory body of the central government for education, constituted the sub-committee under Kushwaha, Minister of State for Human Resource Development in-charge of School Education Department, at its meeting in August 2015.

The 12-member committee comprises Education Ministers of Tripura Tapan Chakraborty, Madhya Pradesh Kunwar Vijay Shah and Haryana Ram Bilas Sharma as its members, besides the director of NCERT and the chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

To improve the quality of school education, the panel has recommended the introduction of a mechanism to assess the performance of a teacher.

"Schools should have vocational education in their curriculum and the vocational skills acquired at the school level should be certified (by a government agency)," the committee has suggested.