EFFECTIVENESS OF INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES IN ICDS CENTERS FOR QUALITY ENHANCEMENT

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to find the Effectiveness of innovative strategies for quality enhancement of ICDS centers . For qualitative assessment of the AWCs, two hundred AWCs from Akluj block were visited and observed for a day with the help of a standardized and adapted tool developed by CECED Ambedkar University Delhi. 200 AWWs were observed for a day s schedule by time sampling method. Fifty AWWs were pre and post tested on their knowledge with the help of self-designed rating scale. For School readiness of 150 children i.e. 50 each from private Marathi medium, English medium and ICDS AWCs were assessed by using adapted tool developed by The World Bank and adapted by CECED Ambedkar University i.e. School Readiness Instrument. After quality assessment of AWCs, innovative strategies package was developed and capacity building intervention training was provided to 50 randomly selected AWWs in two phases. newlineResults obtained revealed that, 64.50percent of the AWCs were in moderate category in terms of the imparting total quality in their respective AWCs. Total quality included the parameters like infrastructure-physical setting; learning aids, program schedule and class arrangement; class composition; personal care, hygiene and habit formation; language and reasoning experiences; fine and gross motor activities; creative activities; social development and teacher s disposition. Routine activities were observed for more number of occasions (1162).More than fifty percent of time, AWWs did not use educational or play material for conducting activities. Twenty three percent of the time,activities were focused on rote memorization. In terms of children s level of participation 45.58 percent of the time children were involved in activities like recitation of rhymes and songs.For 46.41 percent of the time, classes were facilitated by AWWs. The children got opportunities to perform in the class as a whole (77.25%) rather than in group or individually. newlineIn terms of results of quality in relation to teacher variables l