Will you send your tot to Finland or Canada?

While looking for a preschool for her threeyearold the factors that Santa Cruz resident Tara Ramakrishanan had in mind were proximity to her home and safety She was also keen that the school be a branch of the same academy where her sisters children studied My knowledge about kindergarten until then was based on my own memories from childhood It was only after I started hunting for schools for Rudra Raj that I realised that theres a range of curricula offered in the early childhood education spectrumMuch as primary and secondary education in Mumbai and across India come with a varied set of curricula to choose frommdashCBSE state boards IGCSE and International Baccalaureatemdashtodays preprimary schools offer courses in early childhood education for ages 3 to 6 developed by different countries in the absence of any recommendation laid down by the Indian governmentA sensory class at the IB section of Podars preprimary sectionRudra Raj studies at Khars Podar Jumbo Kids where he is learning through the Early Years Foundation Stage EYFS developed in the UK EYFS is based on seven principles starting from communication and language development social personal and emotional development to physical literacy and mathematics development thorough guidelines for assessment This is done not through rote learning but the use of a sand box puppets storytelling and drawing with defined guidelines of assessment for ageappropriate areas of learning and developmentUnderlining the importance of early childhood education Swati Popat Vats president Early Childhood Association ECA says These are the formative years because this is when major cognitive emotional social and physical developments take place All these abilities determine a childs ability to learn in the future They need to learn how to interact appropriately express their feelings manage strong emotions along with fine and gross motor skills speech and language developmentTara Ramakrishanan has enrolled her threeyearold son in a school with a UKbased curriculum called Early Years Foundation Stage which focuses on using a sand box puppets storytelling and drawing as learning toolsSaying that this is why curricula for early childhood education is important Popat points out Early childhood education remains an unexplored area in India Even the Right To Education RTE Act doesnt discuss education below the age of six ECA is pursuing the Indian government to form a curricular framework for these formative years and in September 2019 the National Council for Educational Research and Training NCERT put together a draft of such curricula for preschools and kindergarten Currently in a draft state the curricula will be opened to stakeholders for suggestions after which the implementation will be discussedWhile India may be lagging behind in developing its early childhood curricula schools in Mumbai are taking advantage of the progress made by other countries For instance the Maple Bear chain of preschools follows the Canadian framework Here rote learning is replaced with inquiry and observation Shalini Jaiswal director of academics says Teaching and learning of language is done here through the practice of immersion When teaching a child a new language it is done exactly the way any child learns their mother tongue You do not start from the alphabet The child is immersed in the language from written material sounds and communication If a child responds in their mother tongue the teacher rephrases it in English or the language being taught but does not translate The idea is to help children arrive at those words on their own and not by the teacher repeating the translationSwati Popat Vats president of Early Childhood Association ECAWe also have available in Mumbai the Finnish preprimary system which claims to be most effective learning pattern Under this the idea of ageappropriate learning is given a skip and replaced by stageappropriate learning In any class of 20 children of different ages are included Yet each child is facilitated by the teacher to learn at the specific stage they are at A class is conducted by two teachers and each child will be engaged in different activities This encourages the concept of individualised learning while still being in a group After all that is how the world outside the classroom is You work with people from different age groups That approach has to be developed in the early years This learning philosophy does not believe in bright colours in classrooms Earthy walls ensure an introduction of major colours to children through specifically designed toys adds Anita Kotwal general manager Pre Schools at Podar Jumbo Kids which will offer the curriculum from the coming academic yearSchools here also offer the Te Whariki developed in New Zealand Reggio Emilia approach developed in Italy and Waldorf theory see box While most of the curriculum framework is easily available for the educators through their online presence at no cost it is when a school plans to implement the framework that they have to pay fees to the original developers to license it Fee structures for the courses also vary depending on the location of the school An educator at one of the schools explains In a city like Mumbai real estate plays a major role We may be offering the same curriculum in Colaba Andheri Thane and Nerul but the cost will differ because of property rentalsA classroom at the Maple Bear chain of preschools where kids are taught through the Canadian approach of early childhood educationWhile your child studies the Finnish or Canadian system what happens when they join primary school To ensure that her child gets an IB primary education 40yearold Purvi Ruparel a homemaker picked a preschool that offered the same curricular system Chitra Ahuja headmistress at Podar Jumbo Kids School says the IB preschool curriculum has an inquirybased learning For example topics such as where are the moon and stars whats day and night varieties of birds are all introduced through explorationIn class children are given a topic and then asked to draw whatever comes to their mind Then through their drawings alone the lesson plan is taken forward Stories are not told in class directly they are formed with each child adding to the previous ones inputs After their own formation the original story is then told with pictorial presentation by teachers to make the child understand different characters in the story and the types of the storymdashmoral or personal Ahuja adds that numbers too are taught differently The children learn to count their toys or steps on a staircase The idea here is that unless the child understands the concept of five through exploration she will not be able read write or say the number fiveWhile the new learning techniques are certainly good news for urban parents Popat and others argue that the Indian government needs to come up with regulations to ensure not just uniformity across schools but setting a certain minimum standard that each school must follow Psychologist Dr Seema Hingorany says A lot of research in the area proves that the later years of a child depend on the development in first seven years It is high time that a policy is formulated not only to bring in uniformity but also create awareness among parents Bella Kotwani CEO and principal at the Cosmikids preschools says bringing in uniformity in the way preschools function will address confusion among parents on which school to select If not a complete curriculum a framework of what is expected at different ages should be defined for parents to understand the development of their children she saysDivya Punjabi curriculum head at the Kangaroo Kids Education Limited argues that early childhood education policy should not only be about the curriculum or framework but also about building an entire system catering to and involving early childhood education It has to include teachertraining school infrastructure and environment and take into the changing needs of young parents But in all this it is important that the government doesnt shy away from dipping into the expertise from existing players in market even if privateThree other learning techniquesReggio Emilia ItalyDeveloped after World War II this approach believes in every child as an individual It revolves around the concept of projectbased learning The idea is to put children in an environment where they work on problem statement and learn through exploration The concept is best explained by creator Lorris Malaguzzi Children know 100 languages we take away 99 of them Its used at Singapore International Schools kindergarten in MumbaiWaldorf theoryLike Reggio Emilia this theory does not have a set curriculum but gives a basic framework of principles on which learning can be based Based on the philosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner this theory believes in providing a free atmosphere to children to learn with natural phenomena of rhythm music art by giving complete autonomy to each school and teacher to design learning modules around it In Mumbai Tridha School Andheri offers this approachTe Whariki New ZealandTe Whariki guides to observe developmental milestones such as the ability of contribution belonging and exploration Theres no fixed agegroup in class and students can be from oneyearolds to threeyearolds In such a scenario it is important that a child learns to share care and learn Learning goals are to help the child explore and experience A teacher is expected to ask the child how their day was when they enter and start from there to understand their social and emotional development It is used at Podar Jumbo Kids in WalkeshwarCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates