NT Reporter Panaji
Over 40% of the government primary schools in the state have been successful in starting a pre-primary section as per the government’s instructions.
A senior official in the Directorate of Education (DoE) said the government primary schools were asked to explore the possibility of starting pre-primary section, as the government had begun with the process of implementing the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
Goa presently has 679 government primary schools and 274 of these now have a pre-primary section.
“As NEP envisages education from foundational stage I, all the government primary schools were asked to start pre-primary sections. As of now, 274 government primary schools have managed to start it,” the official said, adding that the remaining schools may take some time to start
the section.
Stating that commencement of the pre-primary schools by the government institutions will help in improving enrolment in these schools, the official said the initiative could help in reviving many government primary schools in the state.
Pointing out that once parents opt to send their children to a city-based school, they do not wish to return to the rural schools, the official said, “If the government primary schools have a pre-primary section, then once enrolled for the pre-primary section, the students may not leave the school till their primary education is completed.” He said teachers have also been provided to many pre-primary schools.
The NEP 2020 envisages that prior to the age of five, every child should move to a preparatory class or ‘balvatika’, that is before Class I, which has an Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)-qualified teacher. Learning in the preparatory class will be based primarily on play-based learning with focus on developing cognitive, affective and psychomotor abilities and early literacy and numeracy.
For pre-primary education, all government schools are supported as per the financial norms under the ECCE component, consisting of recurring grant, including manpower deployment and other teaching learning aids.
