YSR pre-schools getting ready to mould kids

Anganwadi centres in State to reopen on February 1 in new avatar

The government has under taken up the construction of new buildings for 27,438 anganwadi centres in the State, say officials.

As many as 55,607 anganwadi centres, which remained shut in the last one year, will reopen tentatively on February 1 in their new avatar -- YSR pre-schools.

The transformation is happening through interventions at various levels. Anganwadi workers, who will take up the teachers' role at the pre-schools are currently taking classes in spoken English. “Books and other learning material like videos of spoken English, designed with the help of a team of resource persons, have been handed over to the department concerned,” said State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director Pratap Reddy.

“We have shared 12 spoken English videos with the workers and want them to make extensive use of them to develop their communication skills in English language with parents and children,” said Director of Women Development and Child Welfare Department Kritika Shukla, while speaking to The Hindu .

“Recognising the need for Early Childhood Development (ECD) by ensuring adequate nourishment, physical health, mental alertness, emotional balance and socially competent environment, the government has embarked on this initiative,” she said.

The anganwadi centres with around 8.70 lakh children in the age group of 3-6 years, are administratively under the control of 257 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) projects in the State.

Age-specific syllabus and activities designed separately for pre-primary-1 and pre-primary-2 in the past have been revised with focus on English learning, she said, adding that workshops with simple classroom instructions are aimed at engaging children and tuning their language, arithmetic and social skills.

Training

Anganwadi workers will be trained by 257 Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) and 1,414 supervisors in the department, from January 20 to 25. These CDPOs and supervisors have already received training in remote learning and ‘100 days school readiness’ in a collaborative programme with the Pratham organisation.

In view of the pandemic, mothers of the children have been divided in groups and trained remotely on how to engage children at home.

Each anganwadi centre has been given ₹1,000 for procurement of material needed to organise various activities like number puppets, sand paper numbers and alphabets, Aksharamala, flash cards, stories, sound boxes and other material. Besides, a pre-school kit worth ₹5,000 consisting of play material will be supplied to the centres.

Ms. Shukla said that under Nadu-Nedu, the government has taken up construction of new buildings for 27,438 anganwadi centres and upgradation of 28,169 centres would be taken up in next three years.