Preschools are children’s first formal training centre that they visit just after being taught basic things at home, it makes this novel learning experience vital so does the safety associated to it, writes Rashi Aditi Ghosh of Elets News Network (ENN).

Preschool is such an important phase in a child’s life when he or she gets exposed to a structured setting of learning comprising trainers (teachers) and children. It’s first unique experience for the child to learn to share, follow instructions to start off laying the foundation of education that begins in elementary school.

Concern for Safety Safety is the form of being protected. It is extremely important to provide the child with a safe and secure environment predominantly at the preschool level when the child is most vulnerable to various abuses.

Considering the possibilities of various forms of abuses that children can fall victim to, it becomes crucial to ensure a safe and secured environment for them at a place, where they cannot be under the watchful eyes of parents.

Building a safe and secured learning environment, identifying the pupils who are in distress or at a risk of harm and ensuring a swift and suitable action are vital components to confi rm the little ones remain safe all the times.

Be it within the school campus or the school transport, children require safety everywhere.

“Today preschools are coming up in each locality and each school has a substantial number of students,” said Ankit Tater, Director, iSuraksha Solutions Private Limited. “Except for some preschools, safety of children remains to be taken seriously. They along with parents are choosing safety over money.”

“Many parents are unconcerned about spending money on entertainment but when schools are approaching them to pay `100 per month extra for security, they start complaining about it or not accepting it at all,” he added.

Expressing concern over security at preschools, Deven Khullar, Chairman, Brats n Cuties, said: “The security of the children is always the foremost concern for any preschool, knowing the fact that parents have entrusted their invaluable treasure (kids) with us and most importantly before the child can learn, he should be feeling safe. For parents’ satisfaction, we have given them the Live relay of their child’s classroom. Radiofrequency identification cards (RFID) are provided for the auto Short Message Service (SMS) generation at the time of check-in and check out of the child from the school premises. Also, whatsapp reporting is done to let the parent know about the activities done in class on daily basis.”

Grim reality of inflating crime against kids
Rape and incest
According to National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) report for 2015, 8,800 cases of rape and incest on children were registered across India under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

Corporal Punishment
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), having about 15,000 schools affiliated with it, has reported there are sporadic complaints of punishment to students in CBSE affiliated schools.

In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child Development released a study report on child abuse which said every two of the three school children reported facing corporal punishment.

This National Study on Child Protection Mechanisms (NSCPM) echoes that it is the responsibility of the schools to have a written child protection policy as schools are considered one of the safest places for children.

Fire safety at schools
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2014, 853 children aged under 14 died in fire accidents. There were many horrific instances where several children were killed and many had grievance injuries.

Major instances of school fire accidents
On 16 July, 2004, Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) school fi re accident nearly 94 students were killed.

On 23 December 1995, 170 school students were killed in a fire at DAV Public School at Mandi Dabwali, a town in Sirsa district, Haryana.

Explaining about the safety preparedness, Raj Singhal, CEO – Footprints Preschool, said, “It is very important to have audits and surveillance vigorously done at the preschool-level. We have installed CCTVs everywhere and the live feed is broadcasted to parents. Our staff is very well-trained. They are screened for past criminal and medical records and we have tied up with agencies for this screening.”

Safe Transportation
School children are also subjected to life threatening road accidents across the nation as safety guidelines by the Supreme Court of India are fl outed by educational institutions.

Safety guidelines given by the Supreme Court of India for school buses:

? “School Bus” must be written on the back and front of the bus.
? If it is a hired bus, “On School Duty” should be clearly indicated
? Bus must have a First-Aid-Box.
? The windows of Bus must be fitted with horizontal grills.
? There must be a Fire Extinguisher in the Bus.
? School Name and Telephone No. must be written on the Bus.
? The doors of the Bus should be fitted with reliable locks.
? To keep School Bags safely, there should be a space fitted under the seats.
? There must be an Attendant from the School in the Bus.
? Any parent/guardian or a teacher may also travel to ensure these safety norms.

“We all (PlaySchool owners) need to understand the psychology of parents, they are young parents and the way their child is getting departed for the first time from them so are the parents from their wards. We, at Little Leaders, understand this and right from management level to bottom level we train our staff to ensure the way we handle the kids’ feelings. Similarly, we need to satisfy parents’ feeling,” said Anu Gupta, Director, Little Leaders Play School.

Mentioning about the preparedness and arrangements, Gupta of Little Leaders Play School, said, “To address the issue, we introduced modern technology at every step so that parents always feel in control. The parents who send their kids via cab always worry about their child’s safety. For this, we have GPS trackers and if any parent wants we can provide them exact locations of the cabs. Second, they wish to see what their child is doing in school or daycare for that we have CCTVs with live feed access to the parent. So one of the parents will get the access, enabling them to watch their kids live no matter where they are.”

According to Amar Kapasi, Co Founder, Planet Kids said surveillance is very important these days as a basic thing in terms of safety measures, in the wake of untoward incidents happening at various schools in country. “CCTV cameras and police verified employees are the basic measures which need to be taken to ensure the children remain in safe environment. Also the staff needs to be regularly sensitised about handling the children with utmost care and dignity.
Even the children need to be educated about good and bad touch at an early age.”

Suggested Solutions: Suggested measures that can be taken for students’ safety include:

? Child friendly infrastructure
? Proper Parent authorisation cards to ensure the child is being handed over to right parent.
? Security cameras installation in premises
? Restricted visitors’ access areas
? GPS tracking system in school transport
? Keeping a check on help staff
? Putting a fire exit plan in place

Ensuring attendance system at multiple points from boarding of bus in morning till drop off in afternoon, updating about any deviation in routine immediately to parents and school via messaging services can be some other measures.

As childhood is the first stage when child gets prepared for society, the early years of children play the key role in their lateral development. In those years, it is now important that toddlers also grow up as creative individuals while being introduced to their culture. Preschools can play an important role in this aspect, especially while ensuring children’s holistic development. Nowadays, there are many good preschools in India, with many more coming up almost every other day.

A competition between the big names in preschool industry caters to the good quality basic education and holistic development of children. Every school follows certain standards not only in teaching but also in terms of security, infrastructure and transportation of tiny-tots.

“Parents must look for a preschool that encourages development in sense of initiative and self-help, social and emotional development, cognitive development, physical development and hygiene, language-literacy and communication, creative arts, as a part of the educational belief and curriculum,” said Raj Singhal, CEO, Footprints preschool.

Preschool – History at a Glance
Growing urbanisation and increase in maternal employment outside the home has increased the demand of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). The changing social scenario, over the years, laid down the foundation for introduction of Preschool Education/Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in the country.

The earliest footprints of preschool or early childhood education, as an organised education initiative in India dates back to the latter half of the 20th century. The very first preschool education centers were established around 1946 in Gujarat and since then it was practiced to ‘Indianise’ the method to make preschool education available to majority of children in India.

After independence, different voluntary agencies and private institutions were trying to fulfil the need for preschool in the country. The government-taken first initiative in this area was in 1953, which was by setting up of a Central Social Welfare Board to start a grant–in–aid scheme for voluntary agencies/ private institutions.

Recognising the importance of ECCE, the Indian government launched Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in 1975 to improve health and education outcomes for children. The scheme provides early childhood education with the backing of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. To improve the health of children, ‘Anganwadis’ were also established under the scheme across the country. ICDS is one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood development.

Preschool is one of the many services, considered as the backbone of ICDS, that lays the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of a child.

The Present Scenario
The number of private organisations in preschool segment is rapidly increasing. According to government estimates, about 10 million children participate in ECCE programmes provided by private organisations. Private preschool franchise like Kidzee (1,500+ centers in over 550+ cities) and Euro Kids (900 branches across more than 350 cities) are also offering their services in different countries across the globe.

In today’s cosmopolitan world of twin working culture and nuclear families, there is a growing need of parents to find a school in whose care their child can be entrusted, due to which the concept of daycare came into being. These Day Care Centres are meant for children aged 0-10. These centres, that follow a structured routine, are equipped with exceptional learning metodologies and age-appropriate playing facilities for children.

In these centers, children are engaged in various kinds of activities such as singing and painting. The staff of these daycare centers is trained. With individual attention to children, it helps them later in their emotional and physical growth.

Preschool or Child Care segment is 1.6 per cent of total education market of India. It is expected to reach more than 2% of the total education sector in the country by 2020.

According to the Preschool or Child Care Market in India 2016-2020 Report, the footprints of various international schools and kindergartens in India have led to a major change in the educational curriculum.

These international schools follow the Western educational system. This has led to the increase in enrollments of children from elite class and upper middle-class families. According to the report, new vendors entering the childcare market are adopting this system due to the rise in interest of parents in the blended learning of both western and Indian educational system.

“The major challenges of preschool education are lack of organised preschool structure. This leads to a preschool to run like simply a school where kids are being involved in routine academic session only where students are appraised by their reading and writing capacity rather than their all round development,” says Amit Kumar Singh, Managing partner, Kidz Aura preschool.

The special report says, the absence of regulations for setting up schools, low investments, low interest rates from banks, and the ability to expand geographically using the franchise structures are the major factors that are encouraging many vendors to enter the market.

Expressing his views on the preschools, Deven Khullar, Chairman, Brats and Cuties said, “Preschools provide the platform for the child to express, explore, probe and learn which is usually missing in formal schools and basic principles for a Preschool to be successful institution is to focus on holistic growth of the child.”

The Road Ahead
Scope of preschool education is large enough as it is an industry considered to be one of the recession proof industries. More importantly, the preschool industry is the third largest expenditure group in Indian households. Another reason for its wide scope is that preschool education has its impact on child’s future and overall life besides influence on their family. So all this makes preschools as an integral part of a child’s education at an early stage.

“Parents today are themselves well educated and well travelled across the globe and hence will certainly always be on the lookout for schools which bring in global standards of operations as well as methodologies in the learning domain,” said Amar Kapasi , Co-Founder, Planet Kids.

Preschool education has emerged as one of the most profitable segments of the Indian education market. It refers to the organised pre primary education programmes for children, particularly in the age group of 2-4 years. According to one report, the preschool market is set to thrive in India with an expected compound annual growth rate of 21.84% during 2016-2020.

Besides organised players, such as Kidzee and Eurokids, many new players have entered into this segment during the past few years and are expanding their reach into tier II, tier III cities in the country.

“A preschool in today’s time offers a complete plan for every learning style. Since children learn in a number of different ways, preschool is the only place to offer children the opportunity to learn in the ways in which each of them learn best.” said Preeti Bhandary, founder and CEO, Little Elly Preschool.

Exponential growth of preschool franchises in India: In India, the market size of preschool industry is huge with 25-30 lakh children between two and five years in urban India. Therefore, there is a scope for 25,000 preschools. Looking at a bagful of opportunities, franchisors are modifying their expansion plans.

`There are a number of companies offering franchises in India. Some of these franchises require an investment to the tune of over five lakhs. In addition, they charge a fixed fee on a monthly basis for every child enrolled in the preschool.

Although, the money charged by the franchises is big, the good thing is that the parent company helps in setting up the entire infrastructure of the preschool. Furniture and equipment are also provided by the franchise, along with a short training in running the business.

Another advantage is that the new preschool gets instant reputation because of the franchise brand. Parents trust franchise name more easily. So basically, the new journey of the school is not a start from scratch.

“Preschool education in India has gained immense importance over the past years due to increased awareness and affordability among parents. Further, increasing competition in education is prompting parents to plan their children’s future from early childhood’, says Preeti Bhandary, founder and CEO of Little Elly preschool.

A preschool should have the following pre-requisite features to establish its name in preschool market:

Irrespective of whether it is a franchise or your own preschool, space is a primary requisite for opening a preschool. The location for preschool also matters.

A quality infrastructure is important. This constitutes classrooms, play area, washrooms, pantry and offi ce. The space need not be very large but must be adequate and well ventilated. The interior can be simple but has to be convenient for the kids and of good quality. A colorful interior is recommended for preschools. Cleanliness, hygiene and safety are also important.

A complete and clear documentation is expected from every preschool. These could be sanction letters from the bank, approvals and licenses from the authorities or curriculum approvals from the education board. Every single paper should be approved and maintained for records.

The staff whether teaching or non-teaching, needs to be experienced, trained and genuinely interested in spending time with the kids.

Excellent content, curriculum and programme design After school activities.
Customised learning methodologies to various acts of life. The framework of fees versus the facilities must be transparent. A schedule for interaction with parents from time to time regarding academics and administration is important.