Preschool Parents’ Meet Held in all 30 Centres

The Preschool Education Program, earlier known as the Balwadi project, as the name suggests, is an educational programme for the children in the age group of 1-6 years old in the slum areas. At Mumbai Smiles, our peaceful struggle against poverty believes in ensuring the availability of Human Rights for all, irrespective of their socioeconomic status. And for this, we work with the community in the areas of Education, Health, Livelihood, Awareness and Advocacy, with projects, where our community intervention includes training the members of the community to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. And this is why we ensure that the Preschool Education Centres are run by teachers and assistant teachers, trained to be so, from within the community.

These preschool centres are made by the community and for the community with little support from Mumbai Smiles. And to ensure a smooth functioning of these centres with as much participation from all the parents of the preschool children as possible, by conducting the regular and periodical parents-teachers meet through the year. Last week one such meeting was held across all the 30 Preschool Education centres and the special agenda for the meeting was “Value Education to Children”. Under this, the main topics covered in this meeting were regarding importance of safe drinking water, cleanliness, importance of education. Some of the important points which are covered in the syllabus of Value Education are:

1. We must not spit anywhere except in the sink in bathrooms
2. We must throw trash in the dustbins
3. We must talk and behave respectfully with others
4. We must keep our house and surroundings neat and clean
5. We must not lie
6. Taking care of our own health is important.
7. We must attend school every day.

Apart from these points, the meeting included a detailed discussion with the parents on all the important matters like reviewing the activities of the previous months in the centres, Diwali holidays, upcoming events like Children’s Day celebrations, Healthy Child of the month in each Preschool centre etc. Parents shared their experiences of their association with the Preschool Education project, the changes they saw in their child’s regular habits and behavior and their expectations from the future activities and running of the project, including functions, vaccinations, nutritional aspect etc. It was extremely motivational for the project team to receive positive responses from the parents, such as:

“Before the admission in the Preschool Education Centre by Mumbai Smiles, my daughter was very fussy about food and hence, very weak. After her regular attendance in school, his health has improved so much and I have seen positive changes in his behavior too. She is developing well mentally as well as physically and I am very happy about it!”, said Diksha Magar, a parent from Centre no. 20.

“My child is always excited about school and tells us at home every day about what his teacher teaches them in school. We are all extremely happy with the healthy way that he is growing up because of the Preschool Education Centre”, said Madhuri Parmar, a parent from Centre no. 22.

Along with these discussions, slates were also distributed to all the 930 children across all the 30 Preschool centres for their enthusiastic participation in Fancy Dress and Drawing Competition held in the previous months! A positive meet in all the Preschool Education Centres, we are geared up for the sessions now after Diwali vacations!