ECA seeks partnership with Delhi govt to set up pre-schools

City-based Early Childhood Association, a pan India body with a network of pre-schools, NGOs and corporate groups, has written to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, expressing its desire to partner in setting up 10 ideal pre-schools there.
The letter was in response to a desire expressed by Sisodia, who is also Delhi's education minister, to set up 10 ideal pre-schools, at a conference held by Dr Ambedkar University last month.
"We have compiled a comparison of 39 countries and their early childhood curriculum, policies and programmes and during this comparative study we were able to study best practices of more than 30 countries," ECA stated in the letter to Sisodia.

It further offered five recommendations for Delhi government's ideal pre-school project and stated that ideally pre-schools not be called pre-schools, but 'early childhood centres'.
"In our country pre-schools are perceived as preparatory for primary, and thus, the focus is not on developmentally appropriate curriculum but on testing and burdening the child," the letter read.
It stated that these centres should have day-care, parental programmes, and support groups (parent-child programmes) and play based care for 2 to 3 years and play based learning for 3 to 5 years and have a teacher-training programme linked to them so that teachers are trained on the philosophy,curriculum and assessment practiced at the centres.

There should be a philosophy that defines the vision of care and learning at the centres and they should not focus on toys and equipment but on most required developmentally appropriate toys and equipment and ambiance for all age groups, it said.
Early Childhood Association has 2900 preschools, 35 NGOs and 45 corporate groups as its members.