Enhancing early childhood education

New Delhi: Parent interactions and involvement, teacher appraisals, play facilitation, social development and classroom environment are among the key subjects educators from India and Singapore worked upon during the "Early Childhood Education Curriculum Enhancement and Pedagogy" project.

The capacity-building initiative is being organised by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) and Muktangan Education Trust, a non-profit organisation that mentors municipal schools in Mumbai. Since the inception the project in 2017, 32 educators from Singapore have worked closely with about 700 educators in Mumbai to raise the professional standards of early childhood education (ECE) in Maharashtra. "The success of this five-year project marks another milestone in the 26-year friendship between the SIF and India, where Singaporeans and their Indian counterparts worked together on shared challenges at the people-to-people level," said Ng Herk Low, Division Director, Strategic Management at SIF. Elizabeth Mehta, Founder of Muktangan Education Trust said, "Quality early childhood education is an essential pillar of the economic and social development of any community.

The learning exchange has resulted in higher professional standards and an enhanced ECE curricula. I believe the project will spur more cross-cultural collaboration and friendships between our countries". During the programme, the educator completed a series of in-person and online workshops, dialogues, and study visit as part of the project.

The educators from Singapore and India collaborated on topics including parent interactions and involvement, teacher appraisals, play facilitation, social development, classroom learning environments, inclusive practices, and early interventions. The project also saw 34 Indian Master Trainers equipped with the relevant skills and knowledge to train other ECE educators. At least 3,400 Indian ECE educators learned how to improve curricula and picked up new pedagogical and assessment skills. Collectively, about 45,000 educators and students in Maharashtra have benefitted from this project.