Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 33 : Types of Day Care Centers: Nursery School Programme

Staff

The success of a day centre mainly depends upon pro­perly trained worker with warm understanding of the children, the knowledge of the child development and desire to co-oper­ate with the parents or the family, the community and other agencies. The staff in the nursery school should not be less than 20 years of age. They should be emotionally and physi­cally fit to take care of the children and should have genuine interest in their growth. They should be sympathetic, with even temperament, a sense of humor in order to create an at­mosphere of security and happiness at the day-centre.

The ratio between the staff members and the children should be fixed as
2-3 years old – 10-15 children per teacher
3-4 years old – 15-20 children per teacher
4 years and above - 20-25 children per teacher

The nursery workers should, as far as possible, have some training in social work as also nursery school, education, or kindergarten, montessory or happy education or pre-basic etc. The teacher should have at least high school education, and should be a mature person so as to be able to establish whole­some adult-child relationship.
The day nursery worker should be assisted by a group worker, for organizing play, music and other group activities and an attendant for younger children.

An agency running a nursery school, a day centre or a Balwadi should have

1. a warm understanding of the child's personality,
2. knowledge of child's needs,
3. a desire to create environment which will enhance the educational, physical and social development of the child.
4. Close co-opera­tion with parents, proper understanding, interpretation of the family and the home environment,
5. adequate knowledge of the principles of child development and the problems arising out of the child's separation from the home
6. There should be close co-operation between the day-care centers and other health, welfare and educational agencies in the community.
7. the quality of the programme, equipment used and the physical environment are also essential factors for developing healthy, happy and well-adjusted children.

Therefore, there is a need to have mini­mum standards and regulations in running such services. The following are some of the areas of the working of day-nursery which are to be covered by the minimum standards.