Analysing the plight of India's young children: The Quality of Education they receive (ConvSDG x Rocket Learning)

Interviewing the mother of a 6 month old child.

Learning is a tool that helps change lives - it leads to some people being able to bring their family out of poverty, while also helping in their development. Unfortunately in India, most children do not have access to high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) due to the Anganwadi workers (workers at government-run preschools and daycare centers) tasked with imparting this knowledge not receiving adequate training.

As a part of my volunteer work with Rocket Learning, an NGO that works towards improving the quality of ECE in India, I helped conduct a survey for their new program for children between ages Zero to Three in Chandigarh, India. This program that is yet to be launched aims at focusing on children in this younger age group category. This is because, in the first three years of a child's growth, their brains are considered to be the most receptive to newer information and experiences. This increased receptiveness leads to these years being very crucial in the child's development.

This survey had questions regarding a variety of topics to get a sense of what the parents require to be able to contribute more to their child's development during these first few years. It also had a few questions to analyze the current developmental status of the child and to get feedback on the quality of the services offered under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and by the Anganwadi Centres.

During my time in Chandigarh, I conducted 10 interviews - 3 qualitative and 7 quantitative - in 4 villages that were Daria, Burail Khurd, Raipur Kalan, and Raipur Khurd. Each interview lasted around 45 minutes to 1 hour, and at the end of the day, these interviews were analyzed briefly by me. The children whose parents I interviewed were first divided into different age categories from which they were randomly sampled.

I am extremely grateful to Rocket Learning for allowing me to help in conducting interviews for their Zero to Three program. I found this experience to be an amazing one as it showed me the important role that education plays in development. It also taught me how the development of many children in India is limited because they don't have access to good quality Early Childhood Education.

I making the list of students to be interviewed on the 28th of January

PS: I was glad to see that these findings were later also discussed with experts from Harvard University and the World Bank. It is wonderful that these prestigious institutions are promoting research in the field of ECE.

Weaving in Education on Climate Change into the New York Public School System!

Many states in the United States of America have been trying to weave education about climate change into their public school systems. This is mainly due to the belief that "climate change is not a future threat: but a present reality." Such as statement highlights the need for integrating climate education into schools so that students are aware of the changes occurring in the climate.

This integration of climate change into the school curriculum can be done in many ways. Some of these ways are by having comprehension passages and books being taught on climate change. Such a book that is currently being taught in a school is "Rainy Days", which talks about how a school in Chad has to be rebuilt every year because it gets washed away due to floods. Another way this can be done is by teachers also starting clubs and discussion groups where students talk about climate change along with a few other issues.

I was glad to read that last year New Jersey became the first state to mandate climate change lessons in public schools and that teachers were also receiving workshops and trainings on how to teach these lessons. It is wonderful that such initiatives are being taken across the globe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/nyregion/nyc-climate-change-education.html

Tamil Nadu's good Capacity Building helps mitigate the impact of Cyclone Michaung!

The National Disaster Management Authority Advisor, Kunal Sathyarthi recently shared that the impact of Cyclone Michaung in Tamil Nadu was mitigated due to the state government doing a good job in providing relief and support to the people affected by this Cyclone. This also showed that good capacity building also contributed to the reduced impact of Cyclone Michaung.

Despite this Sathyarthi talked about how the government in Chennai needs to work on a more robust plan to overcome such disasters as they are likely to appear again and again due to climate change. He also said that the Union Government and State Governments should partner up to overcome these types of disasters.

I agree with Sathyarthi's belief that both, the state government and the union government should play an equal role in minimizing the impact of natural disasters. This partnership is essential as then there will be more resources to help mitigate the impact felt by the people.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/141223/tns-capacity-building-is-good-ndma-advisor.html