SCERT Nagaland marks ECCE Day in Kohima, highlighting early childhood education and NEP 2020 vision.
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DIMAPUR — The Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) Cell of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Nagaland, along with in-service teacher trainees of two-year diploma in foundational stage education, celebrated ECCE Day at SCERT Kohima on Thursday.
The event is part of the course-based learning experience and to promote the significance of ECCE, an update stated.
Special guest for the event, Vikhweno Chale, Additional Secretary, Department of School Education, complimented the SCERT for organising a well-developed programme and equipping educators with innovative teaching skills, tools and the methodologies.
Stating that 85 percent of the brain development occurs at the foundational stage, she said “Therefore, appropriate care is very essential to nurture, to build and to take care of our children at this stage.”
Chale said that the Department of School Education and SCERT are making all efforts to shift the system of education, focusing on competency-based education, training teachers to go more deeper into understanding children in building their potentials, having more connections with students and real-life connections.
“We believe that through this shift, our learning becomes more deeper, more meaningful, more relevant and it is also applicable to the society, to the nation,” she said.
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“We can make our schools much better than the private schools,” she said, adding “if we are performing well, automatically people will love to come to our schools."
In her keynote address, SCERT Director Kerüüpfeü Rupreo described ECCE Day as a celebration of childhood, a celebration of curiosity, creativity, and the joy of learning that begins in the earliest years of life.
Stating that the event reflects a much larger national vision, Rupreo said “The National Education Policy 2020 has placed unprecedented emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education. It clearly tells us that the foundation of all future learning is laid in the early years.”
Building on this, the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for Foundational Stage (2022) and the NCF for School Education (2023) have “guided us to reimagine classrooms as joyful, play-based, activity-oriented spaces where children learn naturally and meaningfully,” she said.
“This is a significant shift from teaching as instruction to teaching as facilitation, from rote learning to experiential learning and from uniform methods to developmentally appropriate practices.”
Expressing happiness that many of these practices are low-cost, locally adaptable, and rooted in our own context, the director said “This is very important for a state like Nagaland, where community knowledge, culture, and local resources are rich and meaningful.”
The programme was chaired by Veketulu Veyie, senior lecturer, ECCE Cell, SCERT.
The ECCE Day witnessed screening of the project work undertaken by the trainees, showcasing context specific activities, creativity and innovations carried out in their respective schools.