Theorists down the ages have been unanimous in their opinion that quality learning materials hold a significant place in Early Childhood Education (ECE). These can include toys, TLMs, and building an environment that promotes exploration, curiosity, freedom and joy. Developmentally appropriate items and curriculum allow preschoolers to experiment, engage and solve problems.
They encourage inquisitiveness and imagination. They also support the child’s holistic development, which includes physical and motor skills, cognitive skills, language and communication skills, socio-emotional development and creativity.
Learning takes place not only in structured spaces but everywhere. Potentially, each space the child inhabits can become a learning space. In this piece we share with you resources and learning materials developed by Vikramshila Education Resource Society.
For the last three decades, Vikramshila has been working in the area of education. It provides technical support in the form of training and designing curricular content ranging from ECE to secondary education.
Here they share the resources they have developed to equip educators, parents, and other caregivers with the necessary tools and knowledge to foster cognitive development and school readiness in young children.
These resources and TLMs have been developed to enable ECCE educators, caregivers and researchers to create learning opportunities for early childhood care and education. You can access all the documents cited in this article here.
Empowering early childhood education and fostering social and cognitive readiness for school success: The India Early Childhood Education Impact Study Policy Brief (Policy Brief) sheds light on the school readiness levels of 5-year-old children, which are significantly below expected standards.
Insufficient availability of high-quality early childhood care and education programs has resulted in children entering primary schools ill-prepared in terms of cognitive abilities, pre-literacy skills, and numeracy skills. This makes it challenging for them to cope with the primary school curriculum.
The study specifically examined cognitive skills such as sequential thinking, prenumber concepts, spatial concepts, and number matching. To address this issue, the Policy Brief shares an emerging model of early childhood education that focuses on two crucial aspects: social and personal readiness for school adjustment, and cognitive readiness for language and mathematics learning.
In this section, we will delve into the resources developed by Vikramshila to support the social and cognitive readiness of children aged 3 to 6 years. These resources are categorized into two main sections: resources for early childhood educators and resources for parents/caregivers.
A. Resources for early childhood educators
ECCE activity calendar: When implementing preschool programs in Anganwadis, primary schools, or community learning centres, the first resource developed is a daily and weekly plan of activities for the centre or classroom, spanning 30-52 weeks.These plans incorporate an instructional design aligned with specific domains and learning outcomes for each day of the week. The design includes opportunities for playbased activities (individual and group), free play, and guided activities, which form the conceptual foundation for the development of language, mathematics, and school readiness competencies. These calendars can be either thematic or non-thematic.
An illustrative example is the ECCE calendar from Uttar Pradesh, which consists of 52 weeks and is aligned with the state curriculum and its themes. The calendar includes age-appropriate themes around which a variety of activities are planned across different domains, all mapped to specific learning outcomes. The themes covered include ‘Me and my family,’ ‘Trees and shrubs,’ ‘Animals and birds,’ ‘Fruits and vegetables,‘ ‘Our helpers,’ ‘Modes of transport,’ ‘Water,’ ‘Seasons,’ and ‘Festivals and events.’
Additionally, the calendar incorporates 12- 16 weeks dedicated to revisiting activities from previous weeks throughout the year. You can access the ECCE calendar resource on the ICDS website of the Bal Vikas Seva Evam Pustahar Vibhag, Government of Uttar Pradesh, here.
ECCE educator manual: To assist ECCE educators in effectively organizing the preschool program and implementing the weekly calendar and daily routine, a comprehensive guideline manual is developed. An example of such a manual is the Anganwadi Karyakartri ECCE manual. It aligns with the previously shared calendar. It has been developed in collaboration with the state government and UNICEF.
Typically, the ECCE educator’s manual consists of two separate sections. The first section provides educators with knowledge and guidance on various aspects. These include the domains of development, daily routines, annual activity calendar, utilization of the preschool kit, creating teachinglearning materials (TLMs). The section also includes guidelines for the academic calendar of the ECCE centre. These guidelines pertain to aspects such as conducting parent-teacher meetings, organizing birthday celebrations, arranging short tours/trips, celebrating events and festivals, and utilizing the library.
The second section offers guidelines and instructions for effectively implementing the daily instructional design. It covers organizing activities for different age groups, 3+, 4+, and 5+. These relate to language development, cognitive development, art and craft, indoor and outdoor activities for physical development, and school readiness activities for children aged 5-6 years. The manual includes illustrations of TLMs, examples of conducted activities, step-by-step photos to simplify TLM creation, ideas for seating arrangements, classroom organization, and more. You can access the ECCE Educator Manual on the ICDS website of the Bal Vikas Seva Evam Pustahar Vibhag, Government of Uttar Pradesh, here.
Teacher guide and student activity books to support school readiness: The National Education Policy and its corresponding NIPUN Bharat guidelines emphasize the significance of play-based pre-school programs for cognitive readiness, enabling a smooth transition to primary schools. However, due to the vast and complex systemic constraints, not all children start primary school on an equal footing. To facilitate a seamless entry into primary schools, state governments have adopted NCERT’s Vidya Pravesh package. This includes a three-month school readiness program focusing on cognitive readiness for language and numeracy skills.
Vikramshila has provided support to the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan in implementing this program. We share the resource links for the school readiness Teacher Guide and Student Workbook for Maharashtra here and for Rajasthan here.
Capacity building course on early childhood education: In collaboration with Wipro Foundation, Vikramshila has developed a comprehensive digital course on ECE. This course utilizes a blended learning approach, combining online modules, face-to-face sessions, and site-based support. It consists of three distinct phases:
Phase 1: (Synchronous) – This phase focuses on the theoretical perspective of ECE. Participants engage in a 10-hour module on a learning management system (LMS) platform. The module includes lecture videos, readings, self-assessments, and discussion forums. After each assignment, participants receive feedback to deepen their understanding.
Phase 2: (Face-to-Face) – During this phase, the emphasis is on applying theory into practice through developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). Participants work under the guidance of facilitators to develop domain-based instructional plans and create necessary teaching-learning materials (TLMs).
Phase 3: (Onsite Support) – In this phase, facilitators visit the program sites where participants work to provide onsite support and mentoring. They base their guidance on classroom observations and offer assistance accordingly.
The course is designed to familiarize participants with important aspects of early childhood education, taking into account recent research in neurosciences, economics and human development. It is presented in a bilingual format, with presentation slides and reading materials in English, and lectures and discussions conducted in Hindi. For more details about the course, please refer to the links here.
By participating in this course, educators can enhance their knowledge and skills in ECE, incorporating the latest research and best practices into their teaching approach.
B. Parent support resources
These resources have been developed in alignment with the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development. The framework, available at https://nurturingcare.org/, emphasizes the importance of early learning opportunities and responsive caregiving as two of the five core components of nurturing care. The other components include good health, adequate nutrition, and security and safety.
Home-based learning resources: During the pandemic, when preschool centres were closed across India, it became crucial to ensure continued learning at home, integrated into daily life activities. These activities were designed to promote cognitive development, language skills, and fine and gross motor skills.
These also incorporated social and emotional learning throughout. The activities were simple and encouraged continued learning at home. They used readily available resources such as bowls, buttons, spoons, boxes, balls, mirrors, locks and keys. We provide some examples of such home-based learning resources below. West Bengal: ‘Bari Boshe Mojar Kaaj’ – In West Bengal, the calendar was supplemented with a set of written and audio instructions on how to conduct each activity. The package also included audio stories and rhymes. The resources proved to be beneficial in supporting parents’ engagement in their children’s learning and development, even when the preschool centres resumed their operations. Recognizing the positive impact and the continued demand from parents, the distribution of the package was extended.
Uttar Pradesh: Balpitara – As a technical partner to UNICEF and the Uttar Pradesh government, Vikramshila developed home learning resources for children. These resources included a 32-week calendar with 384 developmentally and age-appropriate activities, along with 32 stories and 32 rhymes. The Bal Vikas Sewa Evam Pustahar Vibhag, Uttar Pradesh (ICDS) developed an application that encompasses all the calendars and audio-visual resources. The application is available for download on the Google Play Store free of charge. Here’s the relevant link.
Responsive care and parenting resources: Many parents are busy with work and household chores. They generally leave children to their own devices. Parents are often unable to engage in conversations or behaviours that fostered parent-child bonding, such as playing together, sharing stories from one’s childhood, hugging, telling jokes, and more. According to the guidelines of the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development, these interactions promote emotional bonding. They also help young children understand the world around them.
These help children learn about relationships, language, and people, and stimulate brain connections as well. Responsive caregiving involves observing and responding to children’s movements, sounds, gestures and verbal requests. It forms the basis for protecting children from harm and the negative effects of adversity, recognizing and addressing illness. This can promote enriched learning, and building trust and social relationships.
The resources by Vikramshila shared in the article are prepared with the aim to equip educators, parents and caregivers with the necessary tools and knowledge to foster cognitive development and school readiness in young children. By utilizing these resources, early childhood educators and caregivers can create a conducive learning environment that nurtures the cognitive abilities of young children essential for a successful transition into primary school.
Resources for responsive parenting
In Assam, parenting education materials such as the Varnamala Chart and two parenting posters have been adapted from UNICEF’s ‘Parvarish Ke Champion.’ Additionally, advocacy videos on responsive parenting for parents and caregivers have been translated from UNICEF’s ‘Parvarish Ke Champion.’ Here are the links to these resources:
- Parvarish Ke Champion Varanmala
- Parvarish Ke Champion Poster for parents and caregiver of children 3 to 6 years old:
UNICEF IEC eWarehouse - Advocacy Videos Responsive Care and Parenting
These resources aim to support parents and caregivers in providing responsive care and nurturing environments for young children. They also have the goal of fostering their overall development and well being.
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