NCERT framework for early childhood education in India
NCERT prescribes a broad curriculum and set of learning outcomes for children between the ages of 3-6 in India. Ideally, a child would have mastered these learning outcomes by the time they step into Grade 1 in primary school. However, in many low-income households, and in the absence of public focus on early childhood education through Aanganwadis or pre-primary schools, many children would reach Grade 1 already behind.
We have outlined NCERT's learning outcomes for 5-6 year olds below. Which children do you think would have mastered the learning outcomes for age 6? Which would not have?
Pre-literacy
- Listens attentively to others and demonstrates social conventions of conversation such as eye contact, waiting for one’s turn to speak
- Talks in full sentences and communicates needs and thoughts
- Follows complex instructions that involve two or three steps
- Participates and take turns in conversation and shares likes and dislikes, personal experiences in a sequence with reasonable detail and with reasons
- Recites longer and a larger number of poems, rhymes, stories and songs with comprehension and participates in rhythmic activities
- Asks questions to find information and answers questions, to give information
- Demonstrates further increase in vocabulary and interest in learning new words
- Recognises and points to a frequently occurring word/ picture in a story being read
- Demonstrates understanding that print carries meaning
- Retells a story in sequence and answers complex questions
- Participates in shared reading by reading out the familiar phrase in the text
- Uses pictures and text to make predictions about the story or in an information book
- Plays with words and creates rhyming strings such as hat, fat, bat....or dilli, billi, tilli...
- Identifies beginning and end sound of sound of words and taps out syllables
- Recognizes many letters and their corresponding sounds and tries to decode words
- Recognizes some sight words
- Creates own words combining vowels and consonants, independently form many letters correctly and uses sound- symbol correspondence to write invented spellings
- Use and hold writing and drawing tools with increased / better grip (start using thinner crayons and pencils
- Writes own name correctly
- Listens to English words, greetings, polite forms of expression, simple sentences, and responds in English or the home language
- Demonstrates understanding of simple instructions or a short story in the second language
Pre-numeracy
- Counts and give up to 10 objects when asked to
- Can count forward from a particular number upto 10
Motor skills
- Demonstrates gross motors skills with greater coordination, control and strength E.g., running, jumping, throwing, kicking, and catching skills etc.
- Explores space and participates actively and creatively in music and movement activities
- Exhibits fine motor skills with precision and control
- Uses coordinated movements to complete complex tasks like cutting along a line, pouring, buttoning etc.
Cognitive skills
- Uses all senses to observe and explore the environment
- Notices and describes finer details of common objects, sounds, people, pictures, animals, birds in the immediate environment
- Remembers and recalls 4-5 objects seen at a time,
- Identifies 3-5 missing parts of a picture of a familiar object
- Classifies a group of objects by two or more categories simultaneously for example colour, shape and size
- Creates new patternsArranges 4-5 picture cards/ objects in a sequence
- Narrates events or stories in a sequence
- Provides solutions to simple problem solving situations with reasons
- Shows ability to understand relationship such as part and whole, odd one out, association
- Gives reasons, analyzes, predicts, makes inferences, and interprets
- Engages in investigating and manipulating objects in the environment, asks questions, inquires, discovers, and constructs own ideas and predicts
- Compares and classifies objects by more than three factors like shape, colour and, size
- Seriates up to 5 objects on the basis of a particular property.
Socio-emotional skills
- Describes self and others in terms of physical characteristics, gender, interests, likes, dislikes
- Exhibits understanding of relationships with extended family members
- Demonstrates independence in activities
- Follows rules in a game
- Shows adaptability to any changes in routine
- Shows increased attention span and persistence in daily activities
- Manages emotions appropriately in challenging situations
- Takes responsibility and makes choices based on own preferences and interests
- Suggests solutions to conflicts and makes adjustments when working or playing in group
- Demonstrates willingness to include other’s ideas during interaction and play
- Helps peers who are in need and help in an activity in large and small groups
- Demonstrates sensitivity and acceptability towards children from diverse backgrounds including children with special needs
- Maintains and displays basic health, hygiene and sanitation practices independently
- Follows basic rules of safety at home, preschool and play ground
- Demonstrates awareness about good touch and bad touch and maintains distance from strangers/ unfamiliar people
