Creativity Takes A Backseat, Sadly
By Manu Shrivastava
Pre-primary schools and centres teach basics of formal education and, in the process,the focus on creative activities, arts, sports is diminished drastically. Worse still, these schools do not take any responsibility in ensuring the child learns the basics. Their convenient response is that formal education starts in primary schools and is not their responsibility.
Fact remains most children at that age are too young to understand and learn certain things. At this stage, they must be engaged in activities that develop their creative skills, thinking abilities and moral values and not focus on how well they ‘learn’ or ‘remember’ alphabets or numbers. Also, every child has a different growth curve. They may learn and understand different things at different pace. This does not mean that one is inferior to the other.
So, if someone understands and identifies alphabets faster does not mean he is smarter, another child may be better in building blocks. So, the pressure of undertaking formal education that soon in pre-primary schooling is often counterproductive.
When children don’t perform well in academic tests, their parents enrol them in tuition classes. The child is burdened unnecessarily and deprived of other outdoor and developmental activities that are quintessential at that age.
There are innumerable parents who send their children to tuition classes everyday after they come from their playschool or nursery classes. It is not only exerting for the child physically but also mentally as he thinks he is not at par with his friends who do not take tuitions.
The rigid system of formal education makes it inappropriate and inapplicable for pre-primary school children. “My son liked going to school but he does not like reading alphabets and now it has become very difficult to take him to school everyday,” says mother of three-year-old Alisha Shah from Ahmedabad. So, if the child loses interest in an activity as he is not able to score good marks in it, there is a risk of the child losing interest in schooling completely.
And, more often than not, in this race children with disabilities or special needs are completely ignored. Many children who are dyslexic, autistic or have other mental disorders are completely ignored in the rigid formal education system.
Pre-primary schools and centres teach basics of formal education and, in the process,the focus on creative activities, arts, sports is diminished drastically. Worse still, these schools do not take any responsibility in ensuring the child learns the basics. Their convenient response is that formal education starts in primary schools and is not their responsibility.
Fact remains most children at that age are too young to understand and learn certain things. At this stage, they must be engaged in activities that develop their creative skills, thinking abilities and moral values and not focus on how well they ‘learn’ or ‘remember’ alphabets or numbers. Also, every child has a different growth curve. They may learn and understand different things at different pace. This does not mean that one is inferior to the other.
So, if someone understands and identifies alphabets faster does not mean he is smarter, another child may be better in building blocks. So, the pressure of undertaking formal education that soon in pre-primary schooling is often counterproductive.
When children don’t perform well in academic tests, their parents enrol them in tuition classes. The child is burdened unnecessarily and deprived of other outdoor and developmental activities that are quintessential at that age.
There are innumerable parents who send their children to tuition classes everyday after they come from their playschool or nursery classes. It is not only exerting for the child physically but also mentally as he thinks he is not at par with his friends who do not take tuitions.
The rigid system of formal education makes it inappropriate and inapplicable for pre-primary school children. “My son liked going to school but he does not like reading alphabets and now it has become very difficult to take him to school everyday,” says mother of three-year-old Alisha Shah from Ahmedabad. So, if the child loses interest in an activity as he is not able to score good marks in it, there is a risk of the child losing interest in schooling completely.
And, more often than not, in this race children with disabilities or special needs are completely ignored. Many children who are dyslexic, autistic or have other mental disorders are completely ignored in the rigid formal education system.
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