EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT

Lesson 29: Different types of Early Childhood Care Centers

Open schools

The curriculum of the open education system follows combination of three models: Kindergarten, Montessori and Nursery. It has no clear cut schedule of activities. Children will be given freedom to select activities. They are allowed to move out of classroom to play new activities in the corridors or play ground. Books, structured and unstructured material are provided in the classrooms. Children will be given freedom to arrange the class room, to add new material and to play at their own time. These type of schools help the children to extend their intellectual and emotional resources.

Philosophy of an open school

• Education takes place in an environment that communicates trust, openness and mutual relationships among children and adults.
  
• A child must be accepted as a person
  
• A child has a right to make important decisions regarding his own educational experience
  
• Knowledge is viewed as a personal synthesis of one’s own experience.
  
• Teacher is a partner and a guide in learning
  
• Education is based on inherent desire to learn
  
• Educators are required to maintain originality of the learners.
  
• Children are to work according to their abilities
  
• The school is able to establish a context from which children learn from one another.

Curriculum of open school: it includes the following important aspects

• Play is given special importance with no distinction between work and play.
  
• The content of the programme is organized in some integrated fashion and topics or projects are used as an integrating vehicle.
  
• No concern to cover any specific amount of content and there is no necessity to involve every child to achieve this curriculum. The success of the child is purely individualized.