Who is a Child?
According to the child rights charter, a universally accepted definition of “child” is any individual under the age of 18, i.e. (0-18).
India, home to 1.2 billion people, is the world’s second most populous country and the world’s largest democracy. The vast country shelters a diverse socio-culture and various geographic and climatic conditions. Out of which 444 million individuals come under the age group of 0-18 which forms 40% of India’s population which is the world’s largest child population.
Since the adoption of the constitution in 1950, one of the chief priorities of India’s government has been offering and promoting universal education to all. Though the country has so far achieved progress over the decades, India’s education system still faces significant challenges. Due to several unavoidable (at times) circumstances, the youth is discouraged or forced to drop out of school or complete their education.
Particularly, the education sector in India is burdened by high dropout rates, low-level learning outcomes and outstanding gender disparities in literacy.
In an attempt to address the remaining gaps in the education sector specific project strategies have been implemented to increase access to quality-primary child education in India.
Child education centres have been supporting enrollment drives and community campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of education while enhancing teaching quality through training and support across the country. Several working NGOs for child education are now augmenting the capacity of school management committees; building girl students’ motivation and self-esteem; and creating and relaunching single-classroom elementary schools throughout the country.
The global landscape of Child Education –
Research and data show that over 600 million children and adolescents worldwide are unable to attain the bare minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. For those children who are completely deprived of this education base, foundational skills in literacy and numeracy are even further from grasp.
The overall minor inequities eventually form a bigger barrier to child education – around two-thirds of the world’s school-aged children don’t have access to an internet connection in their homes which restricts their opportunities to further their learning and skills development.
Without receiving a quality education as a child, in the long run, children face considerable barriers to achieving their future goals in earning their fair share in the later part of their life. Due to low or no basic education at all, these children are more likely to suffer adverse health outcomes which eventually affect their level of confidence and hinder their ability to make sound decisions, thus threatening their ability to shape a better future for themselves and become a healthy part of their societies.
Why is Early Childhood Education (ECE) important?
The concept of early childhood education around a decade or two ago was rarely a matter that interested people. Back in the day, usually, early childhood education meant from birth to 5 years primarily the time spent playing around at home, stories narrated by grandparents and routine visits to playgrounds.
However, this concept evolved quickly over the last two decades as a lot of emphases has been laid on the importance of early childhood education plans and learning. As a matter of fact, research has shown that a child’s brain development starts right from the early weeks of pregnancy
Hence, investing in the education and development of children during the period 0 to 5 years is very crucial to turn them into well-balanced adults in society.
What are the benefits of early childhood education (ECE)?
The power of early year education shouldn’t be underestimated as it has a plethora of benefits such as better social skills, increased confidence levels, greater coordination, creativity and increased confidence levels. Literacy and numeracy skills form a foundation for child education.
As per the latest 7th CPC, the amount of Children Education Allowance (CEA) is fixed for Central government employees at Rs 2,250 per child, however, in the case of a Divyang child, the CEA gets doubled to Rs 4,500 per month and the Hostel Subsidy (HS) is Rs 6,750.
How is SENSED working towards Child Education?
We firmly believe in providing each child with the essence of ‘Effervescent and Ethical Education’, as education is the key to empowering the mind of each and every child and the only way to create a prospering and happier nation. Education is the diffusion of moral values, skills, and knowledge in a properly organised structure. We established a CBSE School named “The Global School of Excellence” with the objective of providing high-quality education and also commenced “Mohalla schools” for children of deprived sections to provide them education at their doorsteps.
Since 2011, abiding by our core objectives, we have taken several steps to contribute towards raising awareness and delivering the importance of education.
We initiated and still continue to observe several child empowering projects like “Book Distribution Event”, “Sports Programme”, “Pratibha Samman Programme”, “Self & General Awareness Event”, “Celebrations and funfair visits with Divyang Children”, “Parent Orientation Programme”, “Educational Tour”, and “E-Tablet Distribution” – to educate student and increase the awareness about the need and significance of embracing and encouraging child education.
In our “Book Distribution Event,” we distributed books and notebooks to encourage education among young children them.
To promote the essence of teamwork and the spirit of harmony, we organised a “Sports Programme” for students where they participate and play games and sports activities like Kabaddi, Kho-kho, Football etc.
We seek talent and pay honour to the competent and intellectual successful students to encourage them to perform better and give their best at the “Pratibha Samman Programme”. We believe that if students are well-educated about how they should behave and how they should carry themselves, they will feel more empowered about themselves and that was our aim through the “Self & General Awareness Event”.
We also have an event titled, “Celebrations and funfair visits with Divyang Children” – where we share moments with Divyang children and get involved to celebrate small and fun events with these pure souls. Further, we also had a programme which allowed parents to become a part of orientation to get a better understanding of how their children receive education and what they can expect from the entire approach.
Also, we went for an “Educational Tour” with students to make the process of learning more fun and exciting. And, addressing the post-Covid issues, we started our “E-Tablet Distribution” event, where the teachers distributed tablets for promoting uninterrupted and smooth teaching.
Focusing on the need of imparting quality education, our objective is to create a better environment for the development of children by imparting education to nurture and transform them into healthy individuals for a better and brighter tomorrow.