PANEL DISCUSSION Are pre-primaries succumbing to parental pressure for early reading, writing & numeracy The interactive panel discussion of the EW ECE Global Conference 2015 on the subject ˜Are pre-primaries succumbing to parental pressure for early reading, writing and numeracy?™ was spirited and thought-provoking. Chaired by Summiya Yasmeen (SY), managing editor of EducationWorld, the panel comprised Prriety Gosalia (PG), co-founder and CEO of Leapbridge International preschools in Mumbai and Pune; Swati Popat Vats (SPV), president of the Early Childhood Association of India (ECA); Jeremy Williams (JW) of Griffith University, Australia and Kumaraesan Subramaniam (KS), general manager, Asian International College, Singapore. Excerpts from the 90-minute panel discussion: SY: Parental pressure on children to excel ” especially academically ” is an enduring characteristic of middle class India. Over the past two decades with the accelerated growth of the preschool sector ” there are over 300,000 private pre-primaries in the country ” the pressure on children to start learning begins early. With no standardisation of ECCE curriculums, in most preschools children as young as three are made to do cursive writing, learn multiplication tables, and write tests in disciplined classroom environments. Swati, are preschool parents too pushy about reading, writing and numeracy? SPV: Yes, there is enormous parental pressure on preschools to start teaching the 3Rs. Children as young as two are being made to study numbers and read and write the alphabet, with kindergarteners taught to do subtraction, division and multiplication sums. Parents want their children initiated into formal learning as soon as they enter play school. And pre-primaries are succumbing to this pressure. Myopically, a majority of them are focusing on infrastructure ” air-conditioned classrooms, swimming pools, etc ” when their emphasis should be on developing and delivering child-centric curriculums. ECCE curriculums which are not developmentally appropriate i.e, suitable to the age and developmental stage of children, lead to stress and low retention, and can severely damage infants emotionally and socially. SY: Research studies in the West have confirmed that over-emphasis on formal education and abstract concepts of literacy and numeracy before age five can result in a sense of failure, long-term underachievement, disaffection and even truancy. Prriety, what are the consequences of learning too much too early? PG: The pressure to learn too much too early kills children™s innate curiousity and burns them out. Parents are over-structuring, over-managing and over-educating their children. Preschool teachers need to counsel parents on the adverse effects of age-inappropriate ECCE and emphasise the benefits of learning though play and experiential activities at the pre-primary stage. Given the lack of quality ECCE teacher training programmes, there™s also an urgent need to educate teachers about age commensurate teaching-learning. Unfortunately in India, there are two extremes ” on one hand there is no teaching-learning happening in the country™s 1.3 million anganwadis, whereas on the other hand there is too much learning going on in private preschools. SY: Jeremy, how have preschools in the West struck a balance between parental expectations and age-appropriate curriculums? JW: Four years ago, at…
