English medium education to Anganwadi kids a non-starter

English medium education to Anganwadi kids a non-starter
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Highlights

The much talked about imparting English medium education to Anganwadi children under 17 Integrated Child Development Scheme(ICDS) projects in the district launched with fanfare in the presence of Hindupur MLA N Balakrishna in the recent past failed to take off.

Hindupur (Anantapur): The much talked about imparting English medium education to Anganwadi children under 17 Integrated Child Development Scheme(ICDS) projects in the district launched with fanfare in the presence of Hindupur MLA N Balakrishna in the recent past failed to take off.

Highlights:

  • The initiative aimed at benefitting 1.48 lakh kids in the district
  • Hindupur MLA N Balakrishna launched the project on July 1

The English medium pre-schools supposed to have been launched from July 1st is facing starting and teething problems. The project which is supposed to benefit 1.48 lakh children in the age group of 3 years to 7 years is still a non-starter due to multiple problems and hassles in the joint implementation by ICDS and the municipalities.

The ICDS does not have a project director and the additional project director is on leave and the whole 17 ICDS projects are being supervised by an in-charge child development project officer. Besides, the project's plan to condense 122 Anganwadi centres into 91 for the purpose of running these English medium pre-schools hassle-free too is yet to happen.

The authorities could not find suitable buildings for the English medium schools and none are willing to rent out the buildings for the government in view of fears that the government payments are inordinately delayed. Under the new system, as many as 3 Anganwadi centres are to be integrated into 1 centre.

The Anganwadi workers say they are unlikely to launch the schools this year as proper home work has not been done. Above all, there is no guarantee of imparting English medium instruction to the children as there are no teachers, who can speak English nor teach English language to them. Even, so called English medium instruction to the students in government schools from upper primary level is also a farce as the government does not have an English-speaking teachers team.

Even, English subject is taught in Telugu on the premise that the students cannot understand English. The parents of Anganwadi centre children are disappointed that nothing has so far happened to dream of their children speaking in English.

The project supposed to have been operational from July 1 but nobody seemed to be bothered. Mothers of children Asha and Jyothi are hopeful that that they would see their children talking in English by the time they complete their UKG.

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