Srinagar, 27-Nov: A 4-day workshop on theme-based learning with regard to the Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Association of Social Workers (JKASW) in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and supported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) concluded here on Thursday, 25 November. A Delhi-based non-governmental organization, Eduweave Foundation, which is the technical partner to the JKASW, provided the training personnel for the workshop. Some 50 participants from all the ten District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) in the valley including scores of SCERT staff members also attended the workshop. Director of the Eduweave Foundation, Amita Kaushiq, while underlining the importance of conducting such a workshop, said the theme-based approach is the most recommended method of teaching to young children by ECCE experts. “This approach coherently organizes and weaves various competencies, skills, knowledge and dispositions that children at a particular age need to acquire in a particular grade level,” Kaushiq said. “Most of the time themes are spirally organized and they are taught in a way that children learn the most efficient ways of learning and acquiring skills which in turn support them in the future.” Appropriate themes, she remarked, help integrate the foundational components of school readiness that include pre-reading, pre-writing and pre-number skills. Anandi Tokas, teacher educator with the Eduweave Foundation, said the need of the hour is to equip the teachers with skills aimed at helping them in creatively design different themes to facilitate the comprehension process of the children. “In a theme-based learning environment, the boundaries of exploration are far wider than the teacher can predict,” Tokas said. “The teacher, rather than taking the centre stage, assumes the role of a learning manager.” The participants described as Master Trainers (MTs), who were split up in various groups during the workshop, expressed their satisfaction and asked for conducting more such events in future to keep them updated on the trending skills. “Workshops of such intense nature end up stimulating our neurons to enable us to think better and be productive,” Irfan Ahmad, a teacher from Zone Kakapora, Pulwama, said. “There’s a need to repeat such programs thick and fast in future.” Riyaz Ahmad Dar, who heads the Education Planning Management and Monitoring (EPM&M), SCERT, Kashmir, hailed the efforts of JKASW and Eduweave Foundation in organizing the much-needed workshop. “Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) bring together the expertise and resources of the two sectors with the intention of providing services or infrastructure at a better value for money,” Dar said.
