Rayagada, Feb 9: Rayagada district is facing significant challenges in implementing pre-primary education, primarily due to a shortage of Anganwadi workers. Despite ongoing efforts to provide early childhood education, schools are struggling to maintain instruction quality, hindered by inadequate staffing and infrastructure.
Out of 1,052 schools in the district, only 302 have begun the process of appointing workers for Shishu Batika, a program designed to offer early education. However, many schools are falling short of the required number of students - 30 per class- necessary to appoint Anganwadi workers, leaving some institutions unable to fulfill the program's staffing needs. Additionally, several schools lack a suitable environment for early childhood education, further complicating the successful implementation of the initiative.
In many cases, teachers and headmasters are forced to teach pre-primary children alongside other grade levels. This overlap in schedules is disrupting regular classes and making it harder to effectively manage students. Consequently, students in other grades are also experiencing interruptions in their education.
"It’s difficult to manage teaching multiple grade levels at once, and we are doing our best, but the lack of staff is certainly making things challenging," said Ranjita Mishra, a teacher at one of the affected schools.
According to government policy, Anganwadi workers should be appointed when a pre-primary school has 30 or more students enrolled. However, many schools in the district are not meeting this threshold, which delays the appointment of the necessary workers. As a result, the shortage of personnel is impacting the quality and effectiveness of early education programs. Furthermore, several schools are grappling with multi-grade classrooms, where children from different levels are taught together, exacerbating the difficulty of delivering proper education.
"We are fully aware of the challenges that schools are facing, and we are taking steps to address them. More focus will be placed on improving primary education, and we are committed to enhancing both the infrastructure and staffing for pre-primary education," stated Nityananda Gond, the Minister of School and Mass Education.
The Shishu Batika program, which was introduced as part of the National Education Policy 2020, aims to strengthen early childhood education. However, due to the shortage of Aanganwadi workers, its implementation has been hindered in many areas of Rayagada. Ongoing discussions within administrative circles emphasize the need for more staff to ensure the successful rollout of this crucial educational initiative.
This ongoing issue has raised concerns among education experts, who warn that the lack of sufficient early childhood education in rural areas could have long-term consequences on the learning outcomes of young children.
