Planning and Management of Early Childhood Education Centres

A course to familiarize students with the working of various Early Childhood Education Centres run by voluntary organizations.

Planning and Management of ECE centres is among the four courses that form the Early Childhood Education set of electives in the MA Education programme. The other three courses are: Early Childhood Education- Principles, Policies and Programmes, Curriculum and Pedagogy in Early childhood years‑1 and Curriculum and Pedagogy in Early Childhood Years — 2 

This course will familiarize students with the working of various Early Childhood Education centre-based programs such as creches/​daycares, anganwadis, balwadis, private preschools and centres run by voluntary organizations. It will be based in the field and will draw heavily from the direct experiences of students in these field settings. A student of ECE must know the different aspects of planning and management of a range of ECE centres on a small as well as a large scale. Students will engage with field practitioners to understand the annual and everyday processes of an ECE setting, the role and preparedness of administrators/​Supervisors/​CDPO, Anganwadi workers/​teachers, parents and community in the functioning of a centre. Building on the learning of the previous three courses, they will draw linkages between the goals set for curriculum planning and the planning and management of ECE centres. 

The need for a quality stimulating environment and appropriate teaching learning material has been well established through research. Students of ECE must be able to identify features of an appropriate learning environment for children.Students should be able to examine and analyse appropriate curriculum material for children. It is important that students directly engage in material development, drawing upon the principles of learning, development, curriculum and material design for young children. 

The early childhood educators have a critical role to play in nurturing children’s development. Quality of training of these educators ranges widely across the different sectors, in terms of duration, content, skill development and is guided by differing ideologies about what constitutes ECE. This course will help the student to reflect upon the issues of pre-service and in-service professional development of early childhood educators.