Jaipur: The state education department has decided to deploy teachers as ‘prabodhak’ to teach children in anganwadi centres to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy in children. In the state, around 15,000 anganwadi centres are operational from schools with over five teachers. In such schools, the department has ordered that L1 or L2 level teachers, who are qualified to teach primary sections, should be deployed to teach children aged 5-6 years in anganwadi centres.“We already have mentor teachers for anganwadi centres operating along with schools, but now we are enforcing that these teachers must teach mandatorily three to four days a week. They will teach from the age-wise books prepared by Integrated Child Development Services as part of Early Childhood Care and Education, along with taking assessments mentioned in the books,” said Krishna Kunal, secretary for school education.Officials said that this move has been initiated to ensure the conversion of children from attending anganwadi centres to enrolling in schools for formal education. Under this initiative, preferably a female teacher will be deployed to make children going to anganwadi centres comfortable with formal and regular education, which will help when the child starts attending regular school, “as they will have some familiar faces from before.”Officials said, that based on the results of the assessments, the department will also be able to gauge the working of teachers deployed at the anganwadi centres as mentor teachers. Officials added that at anganwadi centres, the average education time should be 3 hours.
