The Early Childhood Education (ECE) Module was adopted in 1993 with a view to bringing about desired changes in the learning environment for younger children.Early Childhood Education is a joyous experience for the child. The curriculum that has since evolved is child-centered and activity based.
The ECE curriculum focuses attention on the development of skills that are essential for a young child before it can take up the formal learning of reading, writing and arithmetic. These skills relate to the integrated growth and development of a child’s physical, cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, creative and aesthetic aspects of personality and call for a systematic and planned implementation over a period of time depending on individual capabilities of each child. The thematic approach to learning helps children in taking to their immediate environment in a positive manner. Singing, dramatization, role play and various group activities are the essential ingredients of this type of learning.
The formal evaluation system has been done away with at the ECE centre. However, informal and continuous evaluation of acquisition of skills by each individual child is done on a regular basis. The aim is to help each child traverse its developmental course with ease and confidence without competing with anyone. A child’s progress is conveyed to the parents from time to time through a descriptive report highlighting levels of attainment in each area of skill. Parents are expected to interact with the teachers at least once a month in order to review the work done by the child and to sort out problems if a child is not doing as well as expected. Parental involvement at this stage is considered to be paramount importance since any conflict between what the school is giving to the child as an integrated curriculum and what a parent thinks the right education for his child should be, can lead to chaos and confusion in a child’s mind. Parents and Teachers are expected to proceed hand in hand in this Endeavour.
