STEPS PLAY SCHOOL

Changing the Way Parents Think of Preschools

- MOIN QAZI

Preschools have now become an integral part of child education. Preschool, also known as nursery school, is an educational establishment that offers early education to under-fives before primary school. Preschools improve children’s social and emotional skills and enhance later stage educational attainment. They are a boon to working parents who sorely need better child care and pre-K options. It has also become clear that the best investment for future health and happiness was in the first five years of life.

There has, however, been a mixed response to their role in children’s lives. The difference in the outcome is largely on account of the varied approaches of the founders. Many use them as a business platform, and profit-making is the primary motive. They are generally characterized by underpaid teachers and understaffed classrooms. But some make this early learning a magical experience for children. They are trying to change the way people think about early childhood. Preschoolers should love and be excited about their first encounter with a school. While educating them, the focus shouldn’t be too much on school-readiness skills but character-building and social-emotional learning,

We are now seeing a wave of fresh thinking in addressing social problems. A band of education reformers is now pairing their ingenuity with their passion for reconfiguring the preschool paradigm. They believe that as long as we carry on underestimating the mysterious complexities of learning, we’ll continue offering wasteful ways of teaching. Shazia Khan, a trained educationist, a visionary entrepreneur, and an intrepid reformer, is creating new light in the world of young children.