We, humans, are leading our lives with a purpose. It is essential to know the objective of our life and for that we need wisdom. Wisdom does not develop in a day but is a continuous and rigorous process. Wisdom comes with knowledge which we gain throughout our lives with the right education, at the right stage and with the right curriculum. Well-rounded knowledge helps us to face any challenge and equips us with the right decisions. In this process only education imparted to us helps us that is why the education at foundational stage is considered as most important for a child.
A life Child's development in their formative years plays very important role in the learning. This is the most crucial period when cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills develop the faculties of children. The period of foundation stage education influences the life of the students in many ways.
They have fresh minds and ready to explore the world. The only need is to give proper education and access to the educational resources. But in the present time, too primary education is facing so many problems like lack of infrastructure, quality of teachers, lack of responsibility towards teaching, lack of innovative methods of teaching, less interest of students, dropout rates, academically poor parents, and inadequate and improper training of teachers. Inequality in the form of social economic disparity, and gender gap hinders access to education.
The shortage of teachers is also a very critical problem which affects the education. Sometimes overburdened teachers struggle to provide attention to their students properly. They restricted themselves towards imparting subject knowledge which may help them to pass the class, but they are not well read. Students jumped into the next class with average and poor knowledge.
To bring positive change in the process of learning Shri Dharmender Pradhan honourable education minister launched learning teaching material for the foundational stage which is Jaadui Pitara under National Education Policy 2020. The Jaadui Pitara magic box is a play-based teaching-learning material, tailored for the age group of 3 to 8 years. It is available in 13 languages. This material is highly interactive as well as effective.
It provides a multi-sensory teaching-learning experience. Jaadui Pitara contains toys and play materials for kids like puzzles, puppets, book cards, charts, Dominoes flashcards, and posters along with the user guide for teachers and trainers. This pedagogical tool is a unique initiative that has been designed by NCERT. The play with objects like tangram, staking, colourful rings, and Gunith Mala would help the students develop the ability to classify measure, order and count. Skipping rope-like material would help to understand control, and coordinate the body balancing technique. Puppets would enhance their phonological awareness as well as vocabulary. Playbooks encourage self-exploration.
This is the most appropriate age when kids have having super fresh mind and ask âNâ number of questions out of curiosity. I remember during teaching practice we were supposed to teach our students through different flashcards. The number may vary, but the students took great interest in such kind of teaching aids. They became so attentive. Many researchers have proved that teaching aids directly impact the learning of students. Flashcard captures the attention of students. It helps to maintain the interest of students which gives multi learning experience because of its visual appeal and undoubtedly it helps and supports the students in language development. Teaching aids facilitate free expression on specific topics which affects the creative domain of students. Numeracy cards also have the same impact on students.
In the end, we can realize that apart from many challenges of the foundational stage of education, such kind of great initiatives may bring positive change in the learning process as well as in the outcome. Development of interest in education is the focus of our system then why not makes it more playful and exciting for students? This type of initiative helps to foster a positive approach towards education. Who knows in this rapidly changing world continuous learning with the integration of technology would help to enrich the quality of education in all aspects.
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