New Mohalla Play Schools

Teaching the value of education early in a child's life is a very critical part of a child’s growth. Educating a child is an integral part of his/her development. Education not only gives knowledge of the world to us but also turn us into better in every way. Going to school helps a child develop networking and social skills.

It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. Schooling helps them develop interest for extracurricular which leads to their growth in every sense.  Manish Sisodia, who is the Education Minister in Delhi, takes care of the women and child department in Delhi. Understanding the need of education and schooling for any child, on 31 December 2018, he had inaugurated the education centres. There have been many ‘mohalla’ clinics opened as initiative by Delhi Government to facilitate all type of people in case of need. Now the Delhi government has set up 101 ‘mohalla play schools’ or “modern anganwadi hub centres” for children from the economically disadvantaged families who otherwise find it difficult to send their kids to school. These centres are built as an initiative taken by the Delhi government known as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. As per this initiative, the anganwadi centres plan to provide food, preschool education and primary health care to children up to six years of age and their mothers as well. Two or three existing angawadis in multiple locations, including Okhla, Kondli and Patparganj have been merged in order to create these centres which were inaugurated by legislators of the respective areas. Mr. Manish Sisodia said “We recognised that care for children starts from the time when they are in their mothers’ wombs and learning starts from the day they are born. Our 10,000 plus anganwadi centres are the platform to provide this care and learning. In a way, these hubs are ‘mohalla play schools’ for the children of the common people who can’t afford play schools otherwise. Poor early learning experience in early years is the beginning of the learning gap that gets further perpetuated as children progress to higher classes. Government school children start formal school in class 1 and are already at a disadvantage compared to those who go to playschools that use various tools for cognitive development during early childhood”. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has been planning to bring a new curriculum to make these children school-ready as well. The Delhi Government had also given training to the anganwadi workers as per its new early childhood education (ECE) curriculum which as the government, was developed in collaboration with ECE experts. It offers many new learning features and techniques to the learners which are based on latest research on early childhood learning and development.

By: Anuja Arora

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/delhi-government-opens-playschools-for-economically-weak/story-anpP4QmjCbUPNEekMb8niL.html