A workshop to review the State’s Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) curriculum was organised at Asian Confluence, Laitumkhrah here to address the vision for early childhood development in Meghalaya, whole child curriculum and proposed an age-wise curriculum with goals, competence, thematic integration, and group work.
The workshop witnessed the participation and interaction between several government and nongovernmental stakeholders including those from the Health & Family Welfare, Social Welfare (Women & Child Development), Education, C&RD Department as well as teachers and educators from several schools including Pine Mount School and Shillong Public School.
Each department and representatives spoke about various levels of interventions being undertaken at their capacities and the challenges they face, including the gap that needs to be bridged towards implementation of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Mission at large in the State. The need for working in collaboration instead of in silos while expanding the role of women Self Help Groups to leverage the mission was highlighted by the members.
Organised by the Social Welfare Department and the Sesame Workshop India, an educational non-profit organisation, SBI Foundation and SBI Life the recommendations made are being reviewed by representatives of the Social Welfare Department, State Education department, ICDS, NCERT along with representatives from departments of Planning, Health, Community & Rural Development, Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society.
Speaking at the consultative workshop, Principal Secretary, Sampath Kumar stated that Meghalaya is probably the first and only State in India to have initiated ECD mission and called for a collaborative approach between several departments, including the Health & FW, Social Welfare, Education, C&RD as well as the teachers and parents’ cooperation into materialization of this mission. He also gave a detailed presentation of the Meghalaya ECD Mission.
It may be mentioned that Meghalaya’s ECD Mission is a multidisciplinary, research based approach which will not only lead to a holistic development of a child but also to overcome poverty and inter-generational gap. The ECD mission focuses not only on the child but also on parents and propagates the 1000 days gap period in terms of birth spacing, including responsible parenthood, which is crucial for the well being of the mothers as well as the children.
