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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
Katha Community Schools | The Reading Campaign
Bringing children ages 2-8 into sustained reading. | Publishing
Producing quality books for children, ages 0-8 | Support Programmes Teacher training. We start our teachers off with an intensive training that is followed by rigorous Faculty Club Meetings that happen twice a month on Saturdays. CitizenTeach. Volunteer Programme with the Times of India. This also furthers Katha’s links and collaborations with other nonprofit educational institutions & organizations. KARMA. The Katha Reading Mentors Alliance brings caring individuals into increasing reading skills in our children. This brings the neighbourhood into our community schools in various ways for a variety of support initiatives, including funding. Storytellers Unlimited brings practitioners from the visual, plastic and performance arts into the community schools.
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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 and Katha Baltaleem address 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 for fun learning. Children learn that reading well and for fun goes hand in hand with being happy, well-adjusted and ethical.
The eligibility criterion for a Katha community school is based on children’s age and not on their skills.
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.
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The Objective Strong children who are raring to go to school and stay in school make for a strong future citizenry. They also strengthen their 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 school and not lose them to child labour which was rampant during those days in Delhi’s slums. 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 who were otherwise at risk of dropping out of the economic radar completely as they grew into adulthood. Location
Kathawadi in 50 slum clusters is seen as a community-based, family-focused, comprehensive, pre-kindergarten programme designed to help children and their families. The programme focuses on helping three and six-year-olds prepare for school, while helping the parent’s progress toward self-sufficiency. The children learn pre-entrepreneurial and pre-reading, pre-writing skills, as well as the skills of socialising and showing respect for others. This is meant for children who are at least two years old, but have not yet enrolled in kindergarten. The age limit is from 2 to 6. Those below the age of two can also come in once a week. 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.
All children who are at least two 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 a child a liberal, rounded education, together with scholastic, entrepreneurial and spiritual learning. Extensive use of story or katha to make our classes and workshops come alive!
Education that Empowers combines traditional Indian practices with new knowledge on all life-related topics, to make the child a happy member of society.
Katha’s Sustainable Education Model (first use: 1992)
Teaching/Learning materials that make learning joyful and relevant increasing lifelong learning skills and 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 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 staying 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. Katha started its early childhood programme since we have girls of 6-14 who had to look after their little baby brothers and sisters at home and hence could not come to school. Katha's kindergarten and pre-schools [Jhunjhunwadi] have provided fun learning places for children and have taken them towards lifelong learning. If you would like to volunteer
Katha needs storytellers from various categories: painters, dancers, theatre artists, writers and more.
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