Programme
Outcome Assessment: Pre School Programme 2009-10
Assessment of children in the pre primary age group is a contentious issue because the experts are of the view that children of such a small age should not be subjected to any kind of test. Thus, an effort was made to design indicators where the child is not required to undergo any separate test rather it should be based on the observations of their response in different circumstances. Also the indicators were aligned with the activities undertaken with children. However, it is possible that these recorded observations may have been an outcome of other influences also among the children. The observations were recorded in the Month of March 10. Out of 9865 children enrolled for the preschool activities in the Balwadis and Anganwadis 8959 children were observed.
Further, there were two different tools used- one for children who are 3 year old and the other who are 4-5 year old. The one who are 3 year old will continue to be in the preschool set up even next year while the 4 and 5 year one will start moving on to the primary schools by the next academic year. Thus, while the purpose of assessment in the case of former set of children was to record their response to some set of activities, in case of latter it was also intended to record their school readiness.
The above graph, records the observations on 3 indicators of cognitive development. The related sets of activities were regularly conducted by Pratham volunteers in the pre school. About 81% of the observed children can do the activities comfortably .
Children in the age group of 4 & 5 years were observed on certain Language and Cognitive development indicators in order to gauge their school readiness. Data shows that over 75% of the observed children could do the age appropriate task.