Play in early childhood education

Abstract

In spite of its importance, childhood education has been overloaded with several issues newlineand challenges. The early childhood education has not received its share of attention newlineeither by the government or the educationists in India. The government of India has not newlineincluded the children below six years in its ambitious Right of Children to Education Act of 2009 which shows its attitude towards early childhood educationMany educationists consider early childhood education merely a preparation for formal newlineschooling, which increases the chances of it being a downward extension of formal newlineschooling. The distribution of preschools in India is uneven. The urban areas are overflowing with newlinepre-schools with one in each and every street, in contrast to the rural and tribal areas newlinewhere there is not even a single preschool. Most preschools in urban areas have been newlinerunning in garages that lack the necessary infrastructure like playground, appropriate newlinesports and other equipment. The schools which have good infrastructure are expensive newlineand are not within reach of average middle class. The stress on formal education and learning 3R s, has completely eradicated the play newlinefrom childhood. Presently, the schools provide less or no opportunity to play, which, newlineDavid Elkind terms Miseducation (Elkind 1987) Elkind argues that today s parents are newlinenot happy with what the children were supposed to do at that particular age. They expect newlinethem to be the best in everything (2006:29). Hence, they try to do everything possible to newlinefind that extraordinary in their child. They even consider, play a waste of time and newlineunworthy to pay the fee for the schools, which allow the children to play (Hegde 2009; newlineSahu 2012). They often complain that their kids only play and do not learn any reading newlineand writing in those schools. Current research is the first study in India conducted comparing Montessori and nonMontessori approaches following the tests used by International psychologists. newline