Delhi govt. starts playschools for economically weak.
Based on inputs by Shahid Kazi
Delhi’s education minister, Manish Sisodia inaugurated playschools for children of economically weak families.
These centers are called “mohalla playschools” or “modern anganwadi hub centres” for children. These are part of the Delhi government’s ongoing reforms in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. Under the scheme anganwadi centres provide food, preschool education and primary health care to children up to six years of age along with their mothers.
“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,” Manish S said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is also planning to come up with a new curriculum to make these children school-ready.
“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,” Sisodia added.
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