Anganwadi system: Not centres of learning yet

Source: The post is based on the article “Not centres of learning yet” published in The Hindu on 23^rd August 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education.

Relevance: To understand the issues associated with the Anganwadi system.

News: The Anganwadi system, part of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), at present serves over 30 million children in the age group of 3-6 in 1.3 million centres across the country.

What are the challenges faced by the Anganwadi system?

The ICDS scheme is designed to support all children under six with their health, nutrition, and education needs. Over 70% of children are enrolled in Anganwadis at present. But the centres face low attendance because parents do not perceive Anganwadi centres as centres of learning. This is because,

Neglect the role of parents: In ICDS reports parents are addressed as “beneficiaries.” The parents look for learning English (speaking and writing) and math skills when they enrol and send their children to a learning centre. But this is absent in anganwadis.

Why does the child not learn Maths and English in the Anganwadi system?

According to experts, the ideal preschool has a skilled facilitator who ensures that children spend most of their time in free and guided play. It includes exploring and manipulating their physical environments to develop early language, early numeracy, socio-emotional, executive function, and motor skills.

The early childhood care & education (ECCE) curricula of various states also focus on local language-driven, and play-based pedagogy recommended by leading educators in India for this age group.

The Anganwadis in many States is staffed by Anganwadi workers with roots in play-based pedagogy. Thus attending the Anganwadi for the prescribed two hours a day helps children build critical skills by playing with inexpensive, locally made, indestructible toys in a group setting.

What do the private preschools teach as ECCE?

As the parents look for learning English and math skills they send their children to private preschools. Here the children will sit in neat rows, practising joyless, rote-based learning and memorisation of letters and numbers to the exclusion of all else.

Over 7 million children in India attend these age-inappropriate private preschools that focus on rote learning from the earliest ages.

What should be done to promote the Anganwadi system?

Imparting language and maths in a child-friendly way: The Anganwadi system must adopt a middle ground. Anganwadi centres can follow regular daily schedules that balance time spent on self-directed free play and teacher-led activities focused on developing cognitive, literacy and numeracy skills.

This can be done by a) Exposing children to the English language at an appropriate age, b) Giving children a pencil to scribble for a few minutes a day, of course without forcing them to write anything, c) Imparting the fun concepts of maths such as estimation, comparison, sorting, and seriation

Gaining trust from parents: a) Anganwadi centres can conduct regular Shiksha Choupals (parent-teacher meetings) and share regular messages to showcase the learning happening in the Anganwadi to the parent community.

b) Mass campaigns such as “School Chalen Hum” and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan change minds and behaviours with sustained action. A similar mass campaign for creating awareness of age-appropriate ECCE that brings parents in as stakeholders is crucial.

India needs to embrace the power of ‘abhibhavaak-bhagidari’ (participation of parents) to activate Anganwadi 2.0.