Any written or oral exam given to a child in pre-school, the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has termed it as an undesirable
practice resulting from misguided parental aspiration. As per the NCERT which
is the HRD Ministry’s curriculum developing body, the purpose of evaluation at
the pre-school stage is not to label a child as “pass” or “fail”. “Thus on no
account, children should take any form of test or examination either oral or
written”.
“In the current scenario of the country, pre-school programmes put children to a dull and monotonous routine
to those where children are exposed to structured formal learning, often in
English, made to do homework and tests, also denied their right to play,” as stated by the official. The NCERT has also listed do’s and dont’s on the procedure how
assessment should be carried out and should be reported in pre-schools as part
of its “guidelines for pre-school education”. These guidelines have also listed
the pre-defined parameters for admission process, infrastructure, qualifications
and salary of preschool staff, and records and registers to be maintained and
importance of coordination and convergence with community and parents.
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