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RTE act to be applied to 53,000 Anganwadis
Gujrat state to apply RTE act to 53,000 Anganwadis and follow Montessori pre-school system for quality education
The Gujrat government has decided to introduce the Right to Education (RTE) act to 53,000 Anganwadis. This will give their 11 lakh students, the access to private schools every year.
A key official close to the development explained, "Most of the children studying in the Anganwadis are those from labour community. So even if the government teaches them good basics in Anganwadis, their poor parents can't afford to admit them into good private schools. Hence, the state government has decided to set up a new system in which the children will be enrolled directly by the Anganwadis and concerned education authorities in the private schools under the RTE Act, in which their education will be made free."
"Each Anganwadi usually has 20 to 25 or more children. All these students can be enrolled in nearby private schools under the RTE Act, ensuring quality education to them," the official added.
Gujrat state has also decided to introduce uniform Montessori pre-school system in 53,000 Anganwadi centres across the state. It has been noticed that the present Anganwadi centres' teachers do not have the required skills and qualifications to teach the primary class children.
The state women and child development department and education department have jointly developed a new Montessori module of training under which all the Anganwadis will give pre-school education.
The programme has been named 'Early Childhood Care and Education in Anganwadis of Gujarat' and is based on national curriculum framework of 2014.
The official added: "The activity bank for Anganwadi workers and the age specific workbooks for the children are also being developed. The trainings to the Anganwadi workers are also planned for the effective implementation of the curriculum which will be completed shortly. The training of state and district level master trainers will be done, who in turn will train about 53,000 Anganwadi workers. The trainings are planned from July to October 2016."