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Min Read
Play School or Pre-Schools is a rapidly growing industry in India. Owing to the parental expectations over early childhood education and care on the rise, the pre-school market is expected to grow steadily at a CAGR of almost 32% by 2021.
This recession proof industry occupies the 3rd largest expenditure group in Indian households. Thus, parents, who have a strong economic background, are able to afford the luxury of sending their kids to pre-schools.
Children from economically weaker section of the society are unable to get the necessary early education. This creates a learning gap as poor early learning experience in the early years is the beginning. This gap gets further perpetuated as children progress to higher classes.
Therefore, to bridge this learning gap, The Delhi Government has set up 101 “Mohalla Playschools” or “modern Anganwadi hub centres” for children from the economically disadvantaged families.
The centres are part of the Delhi government’s ongoing reforms in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme under which the Anganwadi centres provide food, preschool education and primary health care to children up to six years of age and their mothers.
An Initiative To Provide Holistic Development To Underprivileged
Childcare starts from the time when they are in their mothers’ wombs only. Kids are fast learners, their learning starts from the day they are born.
However, children going to Government schools start their formal education 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 Anganwadi centres are the platform provided by the government to provide proper care and learning to the underprivileged. These “Mohalla Play Schools” are the revamped version of anganwadis for the children of the common people who can’t afford play schools otherwise.
These playschools will cater to children aged between 3 and 6. They have been created by clubbing two or three existing anganwadis in multiple locations.
Working On New Curriculum
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is also planning to come up with a new curriculum to make these children school-ready. The government had also started training the Anganwadi workers under its new early childhood education (ECE) curriculum.
The new curriculum was developed in collaboration with ECE experts and has many new learning features and techniques based on the latest research on early childhood learning and development.
