For You The Teachers part 2

                                     Reforms in School Education as per NEP 2020

Pre-school Education

The pre-school education or Fundamental Education is discussed in Part I, Chapter 1 in the NEP 2020. According to this policy the
10 + 2 structure of the schools are replaced by 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 model covering ages from 3 to18. In this structure a stronger base of early childhood care and education (ECCE) from age 3 is also included which is aimed at promoting better overall learning, development and well being.
Why pre-school education is so important?
To give the answer to this question let's study the different stages of brain development in the early years after the birth of a child. From birth to average 2 years old - is called the sensory motor stage, when the infants learn about the world through their senses and motor abilities and develop an understanding of causality and object performance. From 2 years to 7 years - it is called pre-operational stage. During this stage children develop the ability to use symbols to represent things and they begin to learn language. 7 to 11 years is called concrete operational stage when children begin to develop logical and rational thought and their ability to manipulate their minds to solve problems. 12 years old to adulthood is called the formal operational stage of the brain. This  is a stage of cognitive development that involves the ability to think logically and abstractly and to solve problems using hypothetical thinking.
Therefore the early preschool age (3 yrs to 7 yrs, pre operational stage) is important for a child's development because it helps them build a foundation for academic and personal success. Preschoolers brain grow faster in this first five years than at any other time. That's why pre school is so vital. Preschool teachers make learning for preschoolers interesting and they teach things beyond what kids learn at home. Kids get social time too and this lays a strong future foundation. ECE provides a stimulation during this critical early years. It also helps them to develop social skills, language, be independent and a love of learning. The preschool education helps to improve behavioural concerns, children gain self confidence through learning in a playful way, provide children with cognitive skills that can't learn at home. Research shows that children who graduate from preschool have improved academic readiness and have lower incarceration rate and have better academic performance, better self help skills, confidence and autonomy and better attention span. ECE can help children develop life long enthusiasm for reading and learning. High quality ECE programs can narrow the achievement gap.

NEP gives importance to preprimary education
In our country preschool education is a mix of formal schooling and informal learning at home. It includes Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for children up to 6 years old and is divided into 3 stages - 1st stage often called Nursery up to 3 years, 2nd stage Lower Kindergarten or LKg up to 4 years and 3rd stage Upper kindergarten or UKg up to 5 years. But there is a disparity in access to quality preschool education across regions with urban areas having more high quality pre-school than rural areas. The socioeconomic inequalities affect the preschool education from region to region. Government and NGOs are investing in preschool education recognising it's role in shaping the future of the countries. However despite its importance pre primary schooling have largely been neglected in India. The Right to Education act (RTE) 2009 which was the most important act with respect to education in India focused on universalising school for children aged between 6 to 14 years but there was no consorted effort to increase enrollment for children between 3 to 6 years of age except bringing the concept in the form of Anganwadis, suggesting that all children should have some pre primary education before  enrolling in the primary grade. The NEP 2020 acknowledges that the quality of ECE is not available to millions of young children in India particularly for the socio-economically disadvantaged groups and calls for strong investment in early childhood care and education (ECCE) initiatives to reduce inquality in access.

Skill development in pre-school days
It will be easier for the preschool teachers to prepare themselves as a monitor and guide for the kids if we first dicuss about the skills  to be developed or sharpened in the preschool days. According to NEP 2020 the preschool is considered from 3 years to 8 years of a child.Our main focus will be to make the children ready for the school (school readiness program) especially  making them ready for reading, writing, arithmetic and communication.
For ease of the discussion let us break these five years again into 2 divisions, ie for first 3 years and the next 2 years. The first 3 years will be specially designed for preparatory stage and the second part will be utilized for the application of the school readiness program in much more critical manner.
The skills to be developed, improved and strengthened are:-
1. Gross motor skill which involve development of large muscles in the arms, legs and torso and include crawling, jumping, running, climbing, throwing and catching balls and other physical skills like balance, string agility and hand coordination.
2. Fine motor skill where hands and fingers when involved in gripping and pincer gripping. This will help in writing, drawing, grasping small objects. Different craft activities which require children to use markers, work with scissors, sculpt objects and other dexterity focused creative play develops children's fine motor skills which will be necessary for more complex projects as they get older.
3. Social skills preschoolers learn to get along with others through collaborative play and learn how to respect and get along with others which further develops their language skills, self control and overall social skills. Teachers guide children through resolving conflicts that may arise during creative play or structured learning projects.
4. Emotional skills preschoolers learn to understand their feelings and the feelings of others. This entails being able to identify emotions as well as control them and the actions that go along with them.
5. Cognitive skills children learn to think more complexly, solve problems and make decisions.
6. Literacy skills learn about the world around them by asking questions about objects, animals and events. Slowly they develop reading and writing skill. They also develop spatial skill and use the terms like fast and slow, up and down etc.
7. Listening skills a child's total social and academic learning depends on the child's development and listening skills which allow them to follow instructions and comprehend what is being taught to them. Preschool settings encourage activities that help the children develop their listening abilities.
8. Communication skill kids need speaking and use body language to get what they want or ask questions. They also show feelings through communication. Pre school teaches this important skill to express themselves correctly.
9. Enhancing focus duration skill it is challenging for young students to focus and remain still for extended periods. Pre schools provide a controlled and caring setting that helps youngsters develop their attention spans in preparation for the more demanding classroom environment that come next.
10. Mathematical skill Preschoolers who learn to recognise numbers and count objects are better able to understand the application of mathematics in everyday life. This provides the ground work for the increasingly sophisticated mathematical curricula that follow.
11. Problem solving skill This skill is the most important skill for living. Preschool is the best time to start building this talent through play, tasks and hanging out with others.
12. Creative Skill when a child is allowed to express themselves creatively they become more self assured and can view problems from several angles. Engaging in artistic endeavours kids are able to form their distinct identities and serves as a means for caregivers to acknowledge and value each child's individuality. This can be in the form of visual art or performing art.

Formulation of the Preschool Curriculum
Let's first focus on NEP 2020, ECCE program for preschool curriculum. The curriculum is splitted  into two sections for children ages 3 - 8 with the focus on fundamental learning for children ages 3 to 6. The curriculum includes basic arts, crafts, humanities, games, sports, fitness, languages, literature, culture and values in addition to science and mathematics. The preschool environment should aim to provide all children free, secure and high quality ambience. A playful pedagogy encourages and emphasizes experiencial and joyful learning. The curriculum of preschool must aim to foster the holistic development of children, encompassing their cognitive, physical, social, emotional and ethical aspects. The another very important aspect while developing the curriculum of preschool is it should be universal and equal for all. It must prioritize equity and inclusivity ensuring equal access and engagement for all children. After all the preschool curriculum should be such that there will be a smooth transition from home to pre primary school and onwards.
Now I am discussing the pre primary school syllabus in details according to the directive of the NCERT.
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for the Foundational Stage is developed based on the vision of the NEP 2020, and to enable its implementation. The first 8 years of a child's life are truely critical and lay the foundation for lifelong well being and overall growth and development across all dimensions - physical, cognitive and socio-emotional. The pace of brain development in these years is more rapid, over 85% of an individual's brain development occurs by the age of 6, indicating the critical importance of appropriate care and stimulation in a child's early years to promote sustained and healthy brain development and growth. The most current research also demonstrates that children under the age of 8 tend not to follow linear, age based educational trajectories. It is only at about the age of 8 that children begin to converge in their learning trajectories. ECCE is thus generally defined as the care and education of children from birth to eight years.
Up to Age 3 the child should remain at home, the institutional setting starts from age 3 to 8 years which is appropriate for ECCE in institutional environment, 3 - 6 years ECCE programs in Anganwadi/ Balvatika or preschools and 6 to 8 early primary education program in school grades 1and 2.
Guiding principles for the ECCE curriculum based on NEP 2020
1. Every child is capable of learning regardless of the circumstances of birth or background.
2. Each child is different and grows learns and develops at their own pace.
3. Children are natural researchers with great observation of skills. They are constructors of their own learning experiences and express feelings and ideas through different representations.
4. Children are social beings; they learn through observation, imitation and collaboration. Children learn through concrete experiences using their senses and acting upon the environment. 5. Children's experiences and ways of learning must be acknowledged and included. Children learn best when they are respected, valued and fully involved in the learning process.
6. Play and activity are the primary ways of learning and development with continuous opportunities for children to experience, explore and experiment with the environment.
7. Children must engage with material, activities and environments that are developmentaly and culturally appropriate and develop conceptual understanding and problem solving skill.
8. Content should be drawn from the experiences of children. The novelty of the content or its challenges should be based on the familiar experiences of children.
9. Content should be suited to the developmental needs of children and should provide several opportunities for fantasy, story telling, art, music and play.
10. Equity in issues such as gender, caste, class and disability should be emphasized in the content.
11.Teachers should facilitate and mediate the learning of the children. Scaffolding should be provided by asking open ended questions, enabling exploration.
12. Family and community are partners in this process and are to be involved in multiple ways.
13. Care is central to learning. Children at this age naturally perceive familiar adults as caregivers first. Teachers should be sensitive and responsive to the needs and moods of children. Classroom activities must emphasize the emotional aspect of learning  (e.g through story telling or art).

Assessment of preschool
According to the NEP 2020 assessment for pre primary students should primarily focused on observational methods and a total record of portfolios and play based activities to evaluate holistic development. Emphasizing skills like social interaction, creativity, critical thinking and motor skills and overall cognitive development rather than traditional testing method to test solely academic knowledge. The main focus should be on formative assessment to provide continuous feedback and support for each child's progress.
Key points about NEP guidelines for pre primary assessment Holistic development :- assessment should not be limited to academic but should consider various aspects like cognitive, social, emotional and physical development, behaviour and interactions during play and daily activities to record their progress about specific instances of a child.
Observation based:- Teachers should observe children's behaviour and interactions during play and daily activities to assess their progress.
Play based learning:- play is used as a primary tool for learning and assessment as it allows children to explore and demonstrate their skills naturally.
Formative assessment:- continuous feedback throughout the learning process is crucial to identify areas of strength and improvement.
No standardised testing:- avoid using traditional tests that might be inappropriate for young children.
Parent involvement:- encourage active parent participation in the assessment process to gain insights into a child's development.
Focus on developmental milestones:- Assess children based on age appropriate developmental milestones rather than comparing them to peers.
Some assessment methods suitable for pre primary students under NEP guidelines
Anecdotal records:- teacher can document observations of children's behaviour and key learning moments.
Checklists:- use checklists to track children's progress on specific skills and developmental areas.
Portfolios:- collect children's work samples, such as drawings, writings and project creations to showcase their development.
Peer assessment:- encourage children to provide constructive feedback to each other in a supportive environment.

For You The Teachers

Few words on New Education Policy(2020)

Introduction of NEP in School System

A Basic Idea 

From last few years Indian Government is trying hard to incorporate New Education Policy, 2020, it's not an easy task indeed! Lot many of trainings are given constantly and continuously so that the schools, the principals, the teachers, the parents and other stakeholders be aware of the New Education Policy and implement it successfully and effectively in our education system. Keeping this in mind my effort on behalf of CARE Foundation is to help and design your teaching as well as classrooms appropriate for the Indian schools. It is found that the main focus of the Policy is: Child Centric Education where the children will learn and internalize what they have learned, so that they can effectively use it in their real life.

As per the NEP, learning by doing will be the main medium of instruction for educating our school children. Learning by doing is actually a theory of education expounded by American philosopher John Dewey, the idea is we learn more when we actually do the activity. It is an active hands on approach to learning where students interact with their environment in order to adapt and learn. This way of teaching approach allows learners to construct mental models that allow higher order performance like applied problem solving and transferring of Information and skills. Another benefit of learning by doing is learner get instant feedback and the activity to reflect on what to keep doing, what to tweak and repeat or what to change altogether. Real experience encourages the students and they enjoy learning. Their sense organs are activated. It develops problem solving attitude and enhances creative thinking. Another very important aspect of this methodology is it promotes group learning and group work and thus their social skill improves. Though for last few decades we are talking much about this approach but is not used in an effective way and as a result very often it's found when a new graduate finds himself on his first day at work as an analyst facing spreadsheet with 45 tabs and 200 page annual report, he sits there, paralyzed by this tsunami of data, though he ached all his financial risk management exams but today he doesn't know how to start and use all the informations together. Same happens with the young man who has just taken over his father's vegetable farm. His father was using traditional method of farming but he is interested in modern organic farming but while a start, he was in a real fix, - should he start switching to new methods in a staggered manner or change everything in one go? Should he bring in experts? Competition is enhancing, how can he market his product best? Examples are innumerable but what I mean to say is real life has a knack for presenting problems, not in neat siloed bite of sized pieces but as complex problems with incomplete information, mixed up subject areas and no single solution. Untortunately our education system still focus on drill and kill, memorization and repeated application to antediluvian - situations approaches. These fail to prepare us for the tide ahead which include life and death situations. But that is also true, already many schools are prescribing projects, right? Well! I doubt, the schools that have partially embressed this approach, especially in our country, focus on in the form of "dessert", these are assigned at the end of the of the semester where students are assessed on a project they have worked on for a few days. These projects are typically 'illustrations' or models of something they have learned but actually according to the NEP, it should be the 'main course'. Projects should be main aid or tool for teaching curriculum, not only for assessment. It should be the central to the curriculum not peripheral.

Let's speak in details about how to implement or what is the process of implementing this project based learning technique in class. This particular system requires students to inquire, seek knowledge and then interpret. If a project is carried out with pre- existing knowledge then it is an exercise, the actual system will not be justified properly. The system will as usual overlook the investigative element, which is the most useful in real life today. I think all will agree with me, nowadays knowledge is becoming more and more democratic, anyone can know anything at the click of a button, so teaching will lose its value and essence if we try to pour knowledge. Let our students research and analyse data and be skilled and make a decision. It should not be restricted only in a particular stage, right from pre primary level it needs to be continued. A much higher depth of learning will be there when a full project based learning or combine project based learning approach is used in classroom, no matter where the classroom is, whether it is at home, at field, at school or at any place in the world.

Now let's talk about the reality of our present education system. Unfortunately the statistics which is found in our country as per the government/government aided schools is that 20 to 30% of students pursue higher education and rest of 75% loose out on the way to become a working adult. They often fail to see the use of school knowledge in their professional lives. The only solution to this is incorporating skill based education like decision making, problem solving can make education egalitarian and relevant, whether one enter the workforce as plumbers, engineers or entrepreneurs or homemakers. It has the potential to build a constant improvement in mind set that is much needed in our country's education system. This will help bridge the social gaps present in our education system. The present scenario we find in the schools are the teachers are altogether after covering the breadth of the syllabus and thus schools run shortage of residual time for live projects, and secondly lack of technical and technological support, especially for our rural and underprivileged schools. Along with the endeavor of the government, we have taken a leap to incorporate PBL amidst Indian school education system universally and uniformly. This is a big challenge of course! I am fighting for last 20 years, - alone it's impossible. I welcome all my worthy colleagues to come and join us to present a better future for our children spreading education to all as per their styles and requirements.

But running and implementing project based learning curriculum is not at all an easy task and honestly this is one of the main reasons why the system didn't work. Religiously it requires a lot of meta thinking and rigor to design meaningful projects, practically in the initial days it will demand a lot of time and training. Inspired by the Buck Institute for Education in the US who have pioneered the designs of project, we CARE Foundation started designing the projects for Indian schools. We need partners to design projects, content development, teachers training and development of assessment rubrics for every stage of school system, universally and most important is the customized design for each individual subscriber, so that any school can subscribe and access PBL education in its fullest. 

21st Century Education, A True Paradigm Shift

 Paradigm Shift………………                                   

Once upon a time the concept of ‘Guru’, prevailed in India. ‘Guru’ with his knowledge and experience was considered as infallible and represented the ‘total knowledge’. Just this scenario has reversed by the beginning of the 21^st century. Teachers are facing challenges because of the unknown, unseen and unpredictable future, which is beyond their calculation. The young minds are better problem solvers, decision makers and enablers too. Therefore there would be the paradigm shift in the role of the teachers from ‘a knowledge giver’ to ‘facilitator and guide’! Education can’t be bound to prescribed syllabus only. Teachers need to guide their students towards Entrepreneurial which is not only a venture of creation but also includes management and scaling. Core role of education will be to make students active, successful and a contributing member of the society.

It is a transition………………

It is a transition from rote learning to skill based conceptual learning; teacher centered classroom to student centered classrooms. Some thirty to forty years back role of educators were to prepare students for different tasks and the most important was to transmit the specific values and cultures. Presently due to the globalization there is absolute blending of this tradition which helped to give rise to unique belief system and the area being vast, the adoptability varies.

Boom in IT sector……………………

Due to the vastness of Information technology, today’s students are much more exposed to versatile challenges and they are ready to solve them using their knowledge and new information. They are no more teacher-dependent and wait for the answer from the teachers; they are supposed to learn how to learn of their own. Here the teachers are facilitators; should guide the students when they gather the information. So learning has become a discovery, no more the memorization of the fact.

With the enhancement of sources of knowledge, students need to work collaboratively in discovering information, here the role of the teachers are supposed to make the collaborative study more dynamic, help them to recognize other’s talent and exchange and alter roles while working in a project. This collaborative study will be in the school, and around the world.

Contextual learning plays a key role, where the teachers guide the students for skill development and let them know the application of the knowledge. The value of learning needs to be understood by the students otherwise the lesson seems meaningless, if there is no purpose of the learning.

Another important aspect of today’s education is, the community and the society, needs to be incorporated in the total learning system. Students have to realize that they are the contributory members of the global community.

Technology if not used as method of instruction the teaching will be incomplete; nevertheless it will be the substitute of the educator, which will be a destructive weapon for the society.

Onset of the pandemic, year 2020………………..

Since the last 20 years education was struggling with lots of ups and downs and trying for the utmost adjustment to accommodate the paradigm shift. But the year 2020, brought a big question mark on the education sector, leading to the near-total closures of schools, universities and colleges with the onset of COVID-19. Most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19.

What next……………………

Now the question arise, what next? Is it the end of class room? With a big uncertainty, but the only certain is that the coming days are going to witness a phenomenal change. As academicians, it is our challenge to utilize technology to deliver quality education among all. If we take the positive side of the coin, it can be an evolution to shift the focus from ‘marks based’ academic curriculum to ‘life based’ overall development; which was an urgent need of the 21^st century education.

At present there is a large gap between the learning and the requirement. In education, especially in India, the consumption of online medium was so far used as an entertainment; but it actually should have been the most popular and preferred media by this time. The onset of COVID-19, forcefully made this the only important media, around the globe and even in India.

So let’s hope for the best and give a call to all the educators, for an optimistic outcome and deliver quality education equally, universally and of course in a simplified way.