Pankaj Sinha
Organizing Secretary, JSSN Dimapur
After wide consultations for six long years with academia, intelligentsia, education experts and all other stake holders, the new NEP-20 was approved and put in public domain. We welcomed it with whole country.
It is most necessary to discuss on Child Education under pattern of 5+3+3+4 according to new NEP-20. Here, we want to focus on first 5.
Man’s education starts from infancy. The direct initiative of child education starts from the time of birth. The baby cries, smiles and laughs. The baby looks to mother, listen first voice from mother and tries internally to pronounce word mother in language of mother. Learning of understanding starts of baby in childhood. The child education is only one base of all rounds strong and fully understanding value of education for human being. So child education is most important. In the lack of a good child education process, how can a good citizen be built in the family, society, state and country?
So, on the behalf of one socio-education organization Janjati Shiksha Samiti, I want to keep thought for discussion from the point of view of compulsory constructive child education. Everyone says that today’s child is tomorrow’s beautiful and happy future for the society and the country. But, how? In the right child education, there is a need to think deeply on the right, constructive and practical child education today, leaving all the previous facts.
Learning on its own is the nature of child. Learning yourself is a dimension of his development. Proper rearing of the child is actually a child's education. In the Bharatiya definition, it is called the process of sanskar (good habit). A process is in which the teacher is active and the teacher who teaches only builds a learning environment. The teacher does not teach. In fact, this role is of parents. But unless the parents are ready, it is the responsibility of an institution. Accepting this is the teaching of child education. We should go by accepting this pedagogy of child education.
The medium of child education should be the mother tongue or there should be a local language. However, the local language cannot replace the mother tongue. All academics say that the child's education is scientifically in the mother tongue at the beginning. The child education should be child centric, informal, empirical activity based and enjoyable. Writing, reading, and calculation of the child up to the age of 6 years should not be formally placed.
The child education is not an extension of primary education, but an independent concept of overall development of a child from before the pregnancy age to the age of five years – that is to be seen. Not only that, but the way we consider child education as a foundation for full education. Similarly, the preparations of pre-natal parents should be considered as the foundations of child education. Child education should be seen as a continuous process from pre-pregnancy to five years, not seeing is separately. Pre-birth education is the concept of Bharatiya culture only. So, Bharatiya psychology should be the basis for this. A common experience in child education is that it is either a small lesson in the primary class; either it is not taken seriously as a place of songs, stories and games. Both of them are not accessible. Therefore, we need to create a classical basis for child education, which is referred to Bharatiya psychology and develop the nature of study and teaching-learning style.
Education of little children is basically the responsibility of the family. Therefore, it is not only necessary, but it is also compulsory to maintain concurrence in the family and the school. Therefore, there should also be a provision of parent education process with the Institute of Child Education.
The term education is essentially associated with school bag, book, copy, exam etc. Such a mindset is of the society. In such a situation, if we use such words as child education or pre-primary or infant schools, all these things will also be linked to that, which is from 3 to 6-8 years. This education system should be named as the Child Development Centre. So that the old talents can be avoided and some of the activities should also be found.
Each nation and state wants to make its children a good citizen or civilian formation through education. It is also bigger goal of education. If, we really want to make our children a good citizen or civilian; we would to give well environment them to make a good citizen or civilian from the early years of life. With this, the childhood of child would be developing into an important part of the traditional land and country of family and society. Therefore, my suggestion is that the environment of the Children Development Centre should be fully part of the traditional land and country.
Similarly, the curriculum, topics, content and teaching-learning style of the Children Development Centre should also be compulsorily on the nature of traditional land and country. For this, it should be the support of the people who are practical working on the base of traditional land and nature of country’s education and the institutions for the perfect perfection. The most prominent feature of the child is the naturalist or originality of the child. Similarly, originality is also of exclusive importance in child education. In this sense, fundamental experiments in the field of child education should be welcomed. There should be a neutral study and assessment of the qualitative aspects of the numerical use, how small it is. And the findings should be universal. Such access can only make child education more prosperous and wider. In this way, we can avoid boredom of stereotypes and mechanical actions.
The Physical Resources of The Child Development Centre should be constructed keeping in mind the special needs of the child, which can give a feeling of openness. There should not be stairs in the building, or it should be mandatory. Windows should be inferior to the height of the children. The area of the class room should be at least 500 sq. ft. The building should be environmentally appropriate. There should be natural air and light. There should be colourful figures on the walls of the class rooms and building. Which is not only suitable for beauty, but it is also from educational points of view. Some part of the wall should be left open, on which children can do something if they want. There should be a minimum of five classrooms and a big room for Child Development Centre. In addition, there should be other essential rooms for administrative management. There should be sufficient office equipment. There should be a light low height single square desk/table for one-one child in classrooms, so that the children can move around here and there. Carpet of cotton cloth should be used in adequate quantities for children to sit. In addition, there should be adequate cupboard to collect text materials and toys in the classrooms. There should be sufficient learning materials and proper arrangement for their collection. There should be two computers, one for office and another for educational activity. The basic instruments of music such as harmonium, tabla, dhol, guitar etc also should be done. There should be a smooth system of drinking water, toilet which should be done keeping children in mind. There should be a small play ground, swimming pool and gardening. The office should also have telephone, internet facility, medical material, fire extinguisher. The Schools should also have vehicle and school bus. There should also be a meeting room.
Human resource is the main clever force of educational activities. Therefore, there is no synonym for loyal, hard working, educated and trained teachers for smooth educational activities.
• In small classes, the teacher-class ratio should be 2: 1.
• While the teacher-student ratio should be 1:25.
• Teachers should only get the educational work done. Therefore, one-one assistant is needed for office and management work activities, cleanliness, conveyance etc. should be kept from the employee.
