Half of preschool teachers not qualified to teach your kids…..Bhavya Dore
THE FINDINGS Number of preschools has increased but no proportionate increase in qualified teachers
Half of those teaching at preschools and kindergartens are not qualified to deal with young children, as they have no training in early childhood education, a new survey from SNDT University suggests.
The six-month survey completed in January is part of a Masters thesis through the department of human development at the university. It surveyed 75 teachers across 12 schools in different parts of the city. The survey looked at `formal preschools’ (those attached to high schools) and informal preschools (stand-alone preschools). While 50% of those in informal preschools did not have any training in early childhood education, 51% in formal preschools did not (see box).
There has been a huge increase in the number of preschools but no proportionate increase in the number of qualified teachers, said Reeta Sonawat, head of the human development department who supervised the research. As a result we have people teaching in preschools abusing children, teaching them through rote and unable to come up with creative ideas for teaching.
Parents and activists have consistently objected to the fact that there are no governmnet norms for preschool education, resulting in variable quality of education across the sector.
Some preschools are just not strict about the qualifications of the people they employ, and by employing less qualified people, they try and save on their costs, said Swati Popat Vats, director of the Podar Institute of Education that offers early childhood education qualifications.
With a high teacher attrition rate, preschools are also forced to hire under-qualified people.
The study also found that teachers at informal preschools gave greater importance to allround development of the child than those at formal pre-schools.
While 74% of informal preschool teachers rated parent involvement in the curriculum as important, only 20 % of formal preschool teachers thought so. And while 24% of informal preschool teachers rated developmental appropriateness in the curriculum as important, only 9% from formal preschools did so.