PREPARING TEACHERS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND …

Preparing Teachers for Early Childhood Care and Education

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PREPARING TEACHERS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION

Sponsored by Ambedkar University, Delhi

and National Council for Teacher Education, Delhi

Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED) Ambedkar University, Dwarka, Sector 9, New Delhi-110077

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Preparing Teachers for Early Childhood Care and Education

RESEARCH TEAM

CECED's Research Team Prof. Venita Kaul, Director, CECED, AUD Prof. Adarsh Sharma, Visiting Professor, CECED, AUD Ms. Amita Tandon, Consultant Ms. Parul Taneja, Project Associate and Coordinator Ms. Shubhi Sachdeva, Research Associate and Coordinator, CECED, AUD Ms. Sameen Almas, Research Assistant, CECED, AUD Ms. Swati Bawa, Project Assistant

Technical Partners Mr. Sunil Batra, IWSER (Indus World School and Educational Research) Dr. Anubha Rajesh, ICF International

State Partners Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur Andhra Mahila Sabha, Hyderabad Learning Imprints, Vadodara .

Preparing Teachers for Early Childhood Care and Education

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our sincere thanks to:

l National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) for co-sponsoring the study. l Research Advisory Committee (RAC) Members [Annexure I] for their timely and invaluable guidance. l Participating Teacher Education Institutions for their allowing access to us and for their immense co-operation. l Mr. Ramesh Mandal, Ms. Mina Swaminathan, Dr. Amukta Mahapatra and Ms. Sushma Singh for facilitating our

state level field work. l Experts (Annexure II) for willingly sharing their views and experiences with us. l Late Mrs. Inderjit Khurana for sharing her experiences despite her poor health. l Prof. A.K. Sharma, Prof. Veena Mistry and Dr. Renu Singh for their invaluable feedback on the Draft Report. l Ms. Punita Mathur, Ms. Palak Gupta, Mr. Tejender Bisht, Ms. Mukulika Dadhich and Mr. Anil Singh Rawat for

their consistent support and assistance.

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Preparing Teachers for Early Childhood Care and Education

Foreword

The last few decades have seen an unprecedented growth in the education sector in terms of its expansion and coverage, culminating in the Right to Education (RTE) Act in April 2010. This landmark legislation has made elementary education a fundamental right of every child in India. A significant feature of this legislation is that it has not only mandated that every child should be in school but has also specified the basics of what a school should be, the teacher pupil ratio and the quality of the teaching learning process. While this has immediately resulted in large-scale appointment of teachers especially at the elementary stage, it has also provided for encouraging provisions of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) by the states, which may lead to requirement of more ECCE teachers. These policy directives have placed an unprecedented demand for more facilities of acceptable quality for pre-service teacher education or initial teacher preparation which can ensure that the teaching learning process meets the expected standards.

Is the system across the country really ready to take on this challenge? To date there is very negligible research or documentation in this area in the country which could serve to provide an answer to this question. It is to fill this vacuum that the Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED) at Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), took up this survey of ECCE Pre service teacher education institutions across the country, with other research partners. While it has been a rapid survey it has brought into focus several issues which need to be addressed on priority by all stakeholders if teacher preparation has to be of acceptable standards.

I hope this report will not only provide an assessment of the status of pre-service teacher preparation in ECCE but also serve as a useful reference in this area. We look forward to receiving feedback on the report.

I am grateful to NCTE for having co-sponsored this study along with AUD. I also thank IWSER, ICF International, Vidya Bhavan Society and Andhra Mahila Sabha for their valuable partnership at all stages of this study.

Let me also place on record here my deep sense of appreciation for the excellent work that CECED is doing. I am not in the least surprised that CECED, barely two years old, is held in such high esteem by the professional community in ECCE and Education.

Shyam Menon Vice Chancellor Ambedkar University, Delhi

Preparing Teachers for Early Childhood Care and Education

ContentS CONTENTS

1. Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Findings from the Study

3.1 Teacher Education Institutions ?A Map 3.2 Physical Infrastructure and Facilities 3.3 Profile of Teacher Educators in ECCE 3.4 Curriculum for Teacher Education in ECCE 3.5 Open and Distance Education 3.6 Perspectives and Perceptions about ECCE

4. Overview and Recommendations

Bibliography Annexures

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