From Caregivers to Educators

When one sees little kids, holding their mothers’ or grandmothers’ hands, walking through narrow, potholed roads in slums, no one needs to explain that they are going to Anganwadis. Various studies have highlighted the importance of early childhood education (ECE). Sustainable Development Goal 4.2 at the global level, and Early Childhood Care & Education Policy and New Education Policy at the national level have stated the priority of ECE for overall development. In India, the ECE service is majorly provided by Anganwadis run by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme of Ministry of Women and Child Health. We at Better Education Lifestyle and Environment Foundation (BELIEF) – a budding not-for-profit organization working in the domain of ECE in Pune – aim to strengthen ECE services in Anganwadis by undertaking capacity-building of all the stakeholders involved.

Parents: An Important Stakeholder

While working with teachers and children in Anganwadis, we realized the importance of engaging with parents. ECE is one of the six services in Anganwadis. Other than ECE, Anganwadi workers have to do other things as well, which at times assume priority. In a survey in one of the regions of Pune city, we found that only one out of 26 Anganwadis has its own building. All the other Anganwadis run at rented spaces allotted on an hourly basis.

Engaging with children in the 3-6 years age group, with these limitations stemming from the lived realities of Anganwadis, becomes a herculean task. However, children in this age group spend most of their time with parents. So, empowering parents to create learning opportunities at home becomes an important step in improving the quality of education in this important phase of a child’s learning trajectory.

But we definitely want to create a culture of ECE at home – a culture that puts more efforts into learning right from the beginning, makes parents aware of how and what children learn…

Parents’ Engagement: BELIEF’s Approach

BELIEF has been engaging with parents of 3-6 years old children much before the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Over a period of around two years, this initial engagement has emerged as a program named ‘Parents as Teachers.’ Looking back, we see that this program has organically gone through different stages and will be evolving in its structure for some more years. In order to understand the process, let us categorize it into the following stages.

Parents as Teachers (PAT)

PAT is a program to build the capacities of Parents to conduct ECE activities at home with readily available materials. We create digital content for parents and send it daily through WhatsApp. The digital content is nothing but a set of simple instructions (sometimes supported with photos or videos) for conducting an ECE activity at home. It is expected that parents go through the content, understand the process involved and conduct the activities with their children.

Stage 1: Inform

Initially, mothers of some children used to sit in the Anganwadis and chat with other mothers. This had become a daily chore for most of them. There was no set time to bring children to the Anganwadi. Thus, it was very difficult to plan for the sessions. We realized that parents in the slums are concerned about elementary education but are not well informed about ECE. We started engaging parents through different activities.

Parents Meetings: We began our engagement with parents by conducting meetings. Anganwadis in urban slums have their own problems. We took this opportunity to share these problems with parents and explained to them the concept of child development in a simple language. We developed communication material for the same. Parents’ feedback raised our enthusiasm. Many parents expressed the desire to learn more about ECE. Therefore, we decided to arrange such meetings frequently.

In one of the Anganwadis, a local resident was using this space for storing his old furniture, as there was no space left in his house for the purpose. Technically, this space was owned by the government. We tried to convince the relevant person for removing the furniture; but he did not cooperate. But, when we conducted parents’ meetings in the same space, and shared the problem with them, they convinced that person to move his furniture and freed up the space for children.

Exhibitions: We organized exhibitions in Anganwadis to showcase the teaching-learning resources available in the Anganwadi. We observed parents taking interest in understanding free play materials, pre-numeracy activities, language development activities, printrich environment, etc. During our book exhibitions, parents were often seen browsing through children’s literature or reading out books to their children.

Parents’ WhatsApp Group: BELIEF’s field coordinators (Shikshan Sathis) conducted a small doorstep survey in the community and took the parents’ consent to form a WhatsApp group. The objective of forming this group was to involve parents in ECE. In the WhatsApp group, we used to share important highlights of activities conducted in the Anganwadi along with their role in child development. We used to have display boards in the Anganwadis, where we would publish the work done by children.

We started appealing parents to visit the Anganwadis to see their children’s work, and to appreciate it. Gradually parents started visiting Anganwadis to see how their child was doing. We shared the children’s progress notes with parents as well.

Learning in a group of peers by sitting in the Anganwadis, has ample advantages in the development of a child which simply can’t be replaced by home-schooling.

Stage 2: Involve

After the arrival of the COVID-19 Pandemic everything changed. We had to stop our on-field implementation. Anganwadis from then have not yet started. After some days of enforcement of the first lockdown in 2020, we started talking to parents and shared the idea of conducting ECE activities at home. The efforts taken to inform parents about ECE paid off well. Parents unanimously liked the idea and shared their willingness to take part in the Parents as Teachers Program. We were concerned about two things. First, parents may not be able to comprehend complex written instructions. Second, they may not have any teaching learning material at home.

Hence, we designed activities for child development using materials readily available at home. We started adapting lesson plans created for Anganwadi teachers, so that these can be used by parents. We shared content like songs, stories, lessons on language and math, art, etc. through WhatsApp in textual and audio formats. Parents started conducting these activities and sent us videos or photos.

But soon, the slum became a COVID-19 hotspot and suddenly the count of patients reached 350. A majority of families shifted to various COVID centres. We paused our Parents as Teachers Program at the time, and started focusing on counselling and mental well-being of residents. We also managed to provide some ration to the families as lockdown was being extended again and again; there was no steady source of income to fulfil daily needs.

Once the situation came under control, the PAT Program was resumed. This program is now being implemented with parents from 20 Anganwadis. We realized that Anganwadi teachers have been using this content for other children whom they know in personal capacities.

Challenges and Learnings

The program, in its current form, depends on digital technology. Looking at the digital divide and unequal access to education, are we really catering to the needs of marginalized communities? The answer is obviously in the negative.

We need to evolve tested, contextualized solutions to provide quality education. Those who don’t have meaningful access to the digital world cannot be left behind. We are thinking of incorporating such parents in the program through another approach.

Involving parents in children’s education cannot guarantee that parents continue the program. If there is only one smartphone shared amongst 2-3 siblings at home, the access to the device is given to the older child. Parents are not trained teachers. They struggle a lot while conducting activities.

Generally, the curriculum is helical. We build concepts on one another. In such situations, parents cannot skip some foundational concept and try building the higher order concept. Such challenges, both technical and non-technical, will emerge when we take a deep dive into this domain.

But it is important to note that, we must not think of the PAT Program in isolation. Parents are just one set of stakeholders in Anganwadis. Unless we involve everyone and orient them on the overall objectives, the situation will perhaps not change much.

Learning in a group of peers by sitting in the Anganwadis, has ample advantages in the development of a child which simply can’t be replaced by home-schooling. Preschools play a vital role in the socialization of children and in making them ready for primary schooling.

We never intended to bypass preschool education by the Parent as Teacher Program. But we definitely want to create a culture of ECE at home – a culture that puts more efforts into learning right from the beginning, makes parents aware of how and what children learn, builds their capacities for teaching the basics of ECE, and redefines parents’ roles from caregivers to educators.