Hyderabad: At a time when parents, irrespective of socio-economic status, prefer to educate their children in private schools, the Telangana government plans to take a bottom-up approach by retaining students in government schools, starting from pre-primary level.
According to highly placed sources who spoke to Siasat.com, the Telangana government will introduce a pre-primary school education in 1,000 government primary schools starting next academic year. Currently, pre-primary education is limited to Anganwadi schools.
Often, parents of children between the age groups of three and eight years shift their wards between government and private schools, depending on their financial stability. “Private schools have mushroomed in villages. Parents admit their children to these schools, but after a couple of years, they shift them to government schools due to financial constraints. This is creating a break at the very foundation years of a child’s development,” a senior education official, who requested anonymity, told Siasat.com. His observation is based on research he conducted on 900 children under five years of age in the erstwhile Medak and Warangal districts.
Interestingly, chief minister A Revanth Reddy, who also holds the education portfolio, has hinted at this move on multiple occasions. It also aligns with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which envisages improving the educational standards from pre-primary to high school.
Sources told Siasat.com that efforts to prepare the curriculum for nursery, LKG and UKG classes are running at a brisk pace. “A young team of passionate teachers are working hard to prepare the curriculum before the onset of the new academic year,” a senior education official, who requested anonymity, revealed.
The team also consists of researchers from the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and State Research Centre for Early Childhood Education, a wing of the Durgabai Deshmukh Mahila Sabha (Andhra Mahila Sabha).
However, if the proposed initiative is implemented, it could impact student enrollment in Anganwadi schools.
“Those who wish to continue pre-primary education in Anganwadi schools will do so. The rest will join their wards in the government primary schools,” said the senior official.
As Anganwadi schools have all the pre-primary age group children grouped together, the new approach seeks to place each of the nursery, LKG and UKG children in separate classes, with exclusive teachers to teach them.
The exact model of this transition is still in its conceptual stage, and the government is mulling over various options before implementing it.
| Edited by Veena Nair | 
