Need to promote child-centric syllabus: Dr. Swati Popat Vats

Our children are much smarter than we give them credit for. Teachers should support learning and not command it. Child-centric curriculum should be promoted in schools to facilitate the child’s learning and determine the direction of their knowledge. This type of learning will ensure that the child is happy and having fun while learning. This was informed by President, ECA-India, Dr. Swati Popat Vats. She was addressing a large number of educators on the concluding day of ‘EarlyED Asia 2019’ at City Palace today. The programme was organised by ScooNews, Early Childhood Association (ECA) and Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Trust (MSMSII)

Vats further said that parents and teachers should not push their children to become pre-mature adults. Parents that hover, expect their child to always be correct, make them engage in activities they are not ready for and do not care about their child’s emotions, induce stress and anxiety which hampers learning. Critical parents and teachers will often end up making the child feel worse about themselves and make them resistant to learning.

Earlier, Infant Researcher, Dr. Robert Titzer said that children should be taught to arrange objects by shape rather than colour, texture or size. By using a range of sounds and shapes for words a child can learn much faster as they gain more information about the object. Ideally, a baby should hear the same words spoken out loud by men, women, boys and girls to help generalise sounds of words.

Later there were sessions on topics like – Folk dance and fitness, investment in teacher training, play with a purpose, among others.