Anganwadi Level Parents Meeting

Five parents meetings in Dharwad and 10 meetings in Bangalore Urban districts have been conducted in different anganwadi centers focusing on enhancing community participation in them. The parents were encouraged to become active participants of their child’s learning at home by speaking to the child more often and also by introducing the objects used daily in their homes so that the child would start making sense of the world around. Some centre specific issues were discussed in these meetings:

• BVS president of Amminabhavi 1, Dharwad has not been attending the centre meetings for a long time. In the meeting it was decided to replace him if he fails to attend the next meeting also.
• Thefts have taken place in Timmapur 1^st and Marewad 3^rd centers in Dharwad and most of the food items have been stolen. It was decided that parents will provide snack boxes to their children for the time being. Panchayat representative participating in the meeting was asked to get the doors fixed at the earliest so that the centre’s safety would be ensured.
• The mothers in Bangalore Urban shared their experiences of using the learning materials given to them to use at home.
• All the parents were given tips on how to use day to day materials for promoting learning at home.
• All the mothers were encouraged to interact with the teachers regularly and ask about their child’s learning process.
• Some of the mothers in Bangalore Urban shared how they tell stories at homes. Demonstration was given on voice modulation and other ways of making stories interesting and attractive for the child.

Focus on Formation of BVS Committees:

• As per the new bylaw enforced by Department of Women and Child Development in 2018, the BVS committee is supposed to be formed in all the anganwadis. Prajayatna has ensured formation of these committees in 5 anganwadis and has also oriented newly elected committee members about their roles and responsibilities.

Classroom Observation Processes:

The observation process at the centre help facilitators in identifying aspects that need either to be corrected or adopted for proper functioning of the anganwadis and their achieving the desired goals of ECCE. These processes also help teachers in improving their professional skills.

The teacher of Timberyard anganwadi center needed to improve her concept facilitation skill besides dividing the children in groups as per their abilities. The facilitator helped her in introducing colors to the children. She also helped her in dividing the children in small groups and in conducting color identification activity, thus enabling the teacher in adopting these methods on her own in subsequent days.    

ECCE during the ‘Education Summit’ in Hubli

The 'Education Summit', hosted by Deshpande Foundation, on January 24th , brought together many stakeholders, mainly teachers, anganwadi teachers, parents, SDMC members, volunteers, partner organisations in the field of education and personnel from the departments, mainly from the northern districts of Karnataka. It was a good opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other. At this forum, a session was held specifically to discuss about ECCE and its importance, which was facilitated by Prajayatna. Two of the teachers from the working area of Prajayatna, were also felicitated during this summit, for the good work that they had done in their respective anganwadi centres.