Classes for pre-primary kids from Jun 5: Pvt schools

PANAJI: Days after the directorate of education (DoE) said that the academic year for children aged three will start a month late as teachers are still being trained in the 'playway' and 'experiential learning' methods recommended by the National Education Policy, a consortium of unaided schools said on Wednesday that they will start on time on June 5.
The DoE had said that the academic year for children who enter pre-primary school will begin on July 3 instead of on June 5. However, member schools of the all-Goa government recognised unaided schools association (AGGRUSA) said that they are prepared to start classes at the nursery level from June 5 itself.
"Unaided pre-primary schools are ready for NEP implementation," said its president Vijay Shetti. "We are ready with our NEP syllabus. Every school has started preparing lesson plans based on the new National Curriculum Framework. We have done three teacher training programmes so far on how to teach as per the NEP. We are going to do one more in South Goa. We are starting classes from June 5."
"There are around 50-55 schools registered with AGGRUSA," said Shetti. "We don't know about other private pre-primary schools which are not registered with us. But our pre-primary schools are ready to implement the provisions of the NEP. In fact, some of the provisions were already in force by us, like teaching in playway and experiential learning methods."
While the directorate has said it is holding training for teachers of pre-primary schools in the new teaching methods as required under NEP, AGGRUSA said that the teachers of their member schools have already undergone the required training and are prepared for implementation.
The DoE has called all pre-primary schools to register with it and estimates that there are around 3,000 of them operating in Goa, around half of them being anganwadis run by the directorate of women and child development. Fifty are attached to government schools and around 1,500 are private pre-primary schools.