Lucknow, Jul 16 (PTI) Amid an ongoing debate over the Uttar Pradesh government’s school-pairing initiative, the state’s basic education department has announced plans to utilise vacant school buildings to hold classes for pre-primary students to strengthen early childhood education, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, officials said on Wednesday.
The move comes as the government faces criticism over the merging of schools, which some fear will lead to increased travel distances for young students.
The government’s decision to pair schools aims at optimising resources and enhancing pre-primary education for children aged three to six years.
“Special emphasis has been given to pre-primary education in the National Education Policy, 2020,” a statement from the basic education department noted.
“Through Samagra Shiksha, the basic education department is working on resource creation and environment building for children aged three to six years in a planned manner and is being saturated with infrastructural facilities and educational material,” Deepak Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Basic Education, told PTI.
Under the new directive, all anganwadi centres located within school premises have been declared “balvatikas” (pre-primary schools).
Consequently, following the school-pairing exercise, any remaining vacant school building will be utilised for this purpose.
“The balvatikas operating in these schools will be considered part of the nearest primary schools. Anganwadi centres from nearby areas will be operated in these balvatikas,” Kumar added.
To support these pre-primary schools, the basic education department plans to deploy one ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) educator in each balvatika. They will oversee the use of child-friendly furniture, outdoor play materials, workbooks and teaching-learning material (TLM) to create an engaging learning environment for children. The objective is to foster “peer learning” among young students.
The announcement provides a new dimension to the state’s education-reform efforts, which could see more than 10,000 of the 1.3 lakh government primary schools paired. PTI CDN RC
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