As Ritesh Rawal is famous for his innovations and unique concept of learning in the field of education, there are no any philosophy was made from more than a decade but Mr. Rawal refuted this ideology after his extensive research and delayering various aspects of education, he came up with world’s 6th Education Philosophy called “Manifestism.” Not only this, his innovations are bringing a revolution in the world of preschooling education today. Mr. Rawal is also the Founder of Dudes & Dolls World, Adhyay School, and Ritesh Rawal Foundations, and many successful projects he is running, like; In Sync With Ritesh Rawal, Gullies of India, etc.
Early childhood education is the most significant part of the entire education system, from the point of a student and its really ironic that the transformation related intervention started in this area very recently.
If we look at the positive aspects that have taken place in the last couple of years one of the most significant one is the introduction of a formal policy level framework and recognition to the early childhood education, so Government being a major stakeholder the transformation of early childhood education has done its part.
Now, the ball is in the court of the other stakeholder such as educators, founders of early childhood education institutes, parents to take this journey ahead.
Before we jump into conclusions and start highlighting the initiatives that needs to be taken in this area, we need to understand “deeply” Why early childhood education needs transformation
- Change in the environment: World is witnessing change in the overall environment, be it social, business, entrepreneurial, technology. This leads us towards a new dimension which includes change in overall thinking while designing the development methods, process related to care giving, interaction with the parents etc.
- Change in the expectations: Parents of todays’ era are very well aware about the role of education in shaping the childhood, they have access to the globe on their figure tips. They want to provide nothing less than the best in class experience to their children, so gone are those days where parents will settle for anything less than excellent in any aspect. This expectation must be catered in every aspect such as overall approach, development methods, teachers role, support staff’s involvement, activities that can be planned.
- Future needs: The buzz word “ Future Ready” impacts early childhood education to an extent what it means that, earlier, if not goal but the general understanding of early childhood education was either to engage a child in a “play” or prepare for the primary school because it was considered that early childhood education starts from primary, now the understanding about what needs to be developed in early childhood days has been very well clarified both at the policy level and at the same time at the level of parents this understanding is very clear.
- Change in focus: Earlier the focus of early childhood education was not very formally defined in any way, and therefore this segment of education remained unorganised for a very long time, now this segment has become very focused and with the introduction of blended development methodologies, this sector has gained a lot of focus.
- Availability of the Quality early childhood developer/ educators: Due to policy level introduction and other related aspects there is a huge demand of specialised professionals in this field, however the process of development of such professionals also needs to be transformed accordingly. There is a need to develop a specific curriculum not just for the educators, care givers but for everyone who is involved in the entire process, because at the early childhood education level it is about providing the experience to the children in everything that they encounter right from the point they step out of their home for the first time.
In the end I would like to conclude that people who are really passionate about early childhood education should come forward and inspire others by taking initiatives and establishing early childhood education as a very specialised segment of education.
If people who are really passionate for this cause come forward it will not only improve the quality of education but it will have a larger impact of the overall quality of the education system, because in the chain of education system early childhood education is the starting point and I am glad today we are talking, and taking action to strengthen it.