India’s Pre-Schools Needs To Be Regulated
By Prachi Desai
India is a fast-growing economy and a rapidly evolving one too. The changes in socio-economic conditions have transformed family structures to the extent that in most cases both parents are working individuals and not just the father. This phenomenon is more prevalent in urban and semi-urban areas.
To cope with the perils of nuclear family and the absence of a child caretaker at home, parents have started sending their young children to day-care centres during the day and leave them in the supervision of housemaids at other times. In the last few years, thousands of day-care centres have mushroomed in cities – often doubling up as pre-primary schools as well.
Research studies conducted all over the world suggest that pre-primary education is critical to the development of young children even before they start their learning through formal education in primary schools. Pre-primary ‘schooling’ helps prepare children for the next important phase of their lives in elementary education and helps develop cognitive skills, necessary for the overall development of the child.
Pre-primary education is the first step for a child into the ever-growing realm of knowledge and provides basic skills to the child to find his bearing, become independent, gain confidence and ensures all-round development.
Earlier, day-care centres, crèche or playschools (often used interchangeably)would be restricted to providing care and supervision to infants and young children during the day, particularly for those whose parents were working and could not attend to their children. However, with changing times and an increased demand, these centres gradually started providing pre-primary ‘education’ i.e. basics of formal education ‘to prepare young children for primary education’ for the days to come.
India is a fast-growing economy and a rapidly evolving one too. The changes in socio-economic conditions have transformed family structures to the extent that in most cases both parents are working individuals and not just the father. This phenomenon is more prevalent in urban and semi-urban areas.
To cope with the perils of nuclear family and the absence of a child caretaker at home, parents have started sending their young children to day-care centres during the day and leave them in the supervision of housemaids at other times. In the last few years, thousands of day-care centres have mushroomed in cities – often doubling up as pre-primary schools as well.
Research studies conducted all over the world suggest that pre-primary education is critical to the development of young children even before they start their learning through formal education in primary schools. Pre-primary ‘schooling’ helps prepare children for the next important phase of their lives in elementary education and helps develop cognitive skills, necessary for the overall development of the child.
Pre-primary education is the first step for a child into the ever-growing realm of knowledge and provides basic skills to the child to find his bearing, become independent, gain confidence and ensures all-round development.
Earlier, day-care centres, crèche or playschools (often used interchangeably)would be restricted to providing care and supervision to infants and young children during the day, particularly for those whose parents were working and could not attend to their children. However, with changing times and an increased demand, these centres gradually started providing pre-primary ‘education’ i.e. basics of formal education ‘to prepare young children for primary education’ for the days to come.
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