 |
||||||
 |
||||||
| translating stories transforming lives | ||||||
early childhood education
At
Katha, the early childhood programme is of great importance. We have always
believed that if children’s basic habits can be formed at an early
stage, and if we are able to look not just at their cognitive and
motor skills but also at setting ideas about ethics and a larger view of
the C9s in children, then the larger CURRICULUM FOR LIFE that Katha strives
to help children understand, would be in place. And our early childhood
development consists of four interlinked areas:
Katha
Vaatika |
The
Reading Campaign |
Publishing |
Support Programmes
|
Our early childhood learning is for two age groups:
- The Kathawadi [Nursery] for children between 18 and 36 months.
- The Preschool for children, aged 3-8 years, is divided into two
stages
- LKG: lower kindergarten | UKG: upper kindergarten
The Katha Preschool Curriculum, Katha Baltaleem, addresses the wide range of development levels that are natural to all LKG/UKG programmes, in special and uniquely designed ways.
Katha sees its early childhood programme as a time and space for fun learning. Children learn that reading well and for fun goes hand in hand with being happy, well-adjusted and ethical. We see early childhood education as a space which promotes not just democratic learning but learning for democracy.
The eligibility criterion for a Katha community school is based on children’s age and not on their skills. And great care is taken to include the women in the activities of the schools. There is a special regular programme for lactating and pregnant women that ensures that children are born healthy.
The Preschool leads to grade 1 – either in a Katha School or in government/private schools adjoining each Katha Vaatika.
We follow a modified Leuven System of assessment in our schools. Started in 1976 by Ferre Laevers at the University of Leuven, the LIS-YC is a process-oriented monitoring system which provides professionals with a tool for quality assessment of educational settings. It looks at how ‘involved’ the children are in their work and their ‘emotional well-being’, allowing professionals to highlight children who may need extra support in the classroom.
more>
The objective Strong
Babies raring to go to school and stay in schol makes for a strong future
citizenry and makes strong, cooperative families
Programme Overview
In 1990, Katha began its first early childhood intervention
in one of the biggest slum clusters of Delhi. Its main focus was to some
how keep children in schooling and not lose them to child labour which
was rampant during those days in Delhi’s slums. And to support
the proper physical and mental growth of our 0-8 year olds we work with
their families, extended families and communities. The initiative has
been helping .... children since 1990, in the age group of 0-5, who were
otherwise at-risk of dropping out of the economic radar completely as
they grew into adulthood.
LOCATION
KATHAWADI in 50 slum clusters which adjoin MCD Schools to which
children can go once they attain the age of 5, is seen as a community-based,
family-focused, comprehensive, pre-kindergarten programme designed to
help children and their families who are in poverty.
The programme focuses on helping
three- and six-year-olds prepare for and succeed in school
while helping their parents progress toward self-sufficiency. They will
learn pre-entrepreneurial and pre-reading, pre-writing skills, as well
as the skills of socializing and showing respect for others and their
properties.
Katha will operate 101 schools in 50 slum clusters in the first
year. Each school will have 75 children in the age group of 3-6.
Age of children in a early childhood centre
ALL children who are at least 2 years old and are not yet enrolled
in kindergarten. Age limit: 2- 6. But babies below the age of two
will come in once a week. This is built into the timetable
This programme started off with four strong elements:
education:
A Relevant Education Curriculum that gives to the child a liberal, rounded education that brings together scholastic, entrepreneurial and spiritual learning. Extensive use of story/katha, and fun, to make our classes/workshops come alive! |
||
Education that Empowers, that combines traditional Indian practices with new knowledge on all life-related topics, which makes the child a responsive, responsible and happy member of her society |
Katha’s Sustainable
Education Model |
Teaching/Learning materials that make learning joyful, relevant and creative, increasing lifelong learning skills/habits in children. |
Creating Students and Teachers who know their rights and responsibilities and who join hands to make the system work for the good of all. |
Teacher Training that supports sound and creative classroom ideas on subject and areas like gender, worked sensitively into and in relation to formal, curricular teaching. |
|
Community and Family Participation and informed investment in their own and their children’s future. |
||
cognitive and other development
A main focus area for Katha!
Through special poems and stories:
C9s. Teamwork. Community awareness.
Loka samastha sukino bavanthu: The wellbeing of all lifeforms
on earth – starting from a worm to homeless dogs to elephants
that roam the wild; mother earth – from the mountains and rivers
to the skies and air!
key research findings
Research feedback is a basis of our work in our community schools.Katha's
Working group on Early Childhood learning was formed with a focus on
what and how children read and learn and how we can enhance their chances
of statying in education till at least high school. With more than 100
volunteers and storytellers working with us, Katha preschools take forward
our research into action.
parent
Involvement
Katha started its early childhood programme since we haev
girls of 6-14 who had to look after their little baby brothers
and sisters at home and hence could not come to school. And since1990
Katha's kindergarten and preschools[Jhunjhunwadi] have provided
fun learning places for children and have taken them towards
lifelong learning.
If you would like to volunteer:
Need a storyteller from each nearby set of flats: painters,
dancers, theatre people. Writers, storytellers. From the community.
katha
learning system
A powerful tool that has, since
1990, situated the child in the community of carers
and brings this community into the curriculum and
the school, making learning relevant as well as cooperative..
With 50 community
schools that focus on early childhood learning, Katha helps children
living in poverty to link formal education with career pathways.
katha
lab school
To impact 80% of the urban disadvantaged communities,
starting with Delhi,the lab school hones Katha's well-defined recipe
that enables children and youth to reach their potential..
professional
schools
The Katha School of Entrepreneurship.
The Katha Info Tech School. The Social Work Institute
help youth get out of poverty..
schools
on wheels
1000 street children come
into our IT schools on wheels! Since 2001, the
Tamasha Roadshows have brought the joy of reading
and formal education to urban child workers
katha
reading campaign
An
exciting and innovative way of bring large numbers of urban children
into assured reading skill:
The Delhi Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have invited
us to work in 300 of their schools.
teacher
education
With a 160
hour annual training and regular twice-a-month faculty club meets,
Katha's teachers are an excited lot!
the
school & poverty alleviation
Kath, since 1990, has been
the centre of community action and economic resurgence.
Today, the movement thrives in 71 slum and street
communities.
research
This
year's focus is on early childhood education. And equitable education
for our youth.
katha translation for equity network
There are 100 million youth in our country, stymied by lack of English and hence unable to perform well in college. K.TEN addresses this obdurate problem.
