The first six years of a child’s life last a lifetime. Known as the early childhood stage, these years are globally acknowledged as the most critical years for lifelong development. Thus, there is an urgent need to cater to this sector. Treading on this agenda, Auuro Educational Services conducted a national level convention themed, ‘Empowering India Through Quality Early Years Education’ in Chennai. Besides highlighting the importance of early education, the day was also marked by recognising school-teachers who have worked towards this, by TN Governor K Rosaiah, Seiji Baba, Consul General of Japan and A Senthil Kumaran, Head-Educational Excellence, CII. “According to Census 2011 there are about 164 million children between 0-6 years of age. Recognising the need to provide quality pre-primary programme is imperative. I am happy to learn that Auuro has touched the lives of more than 2,00,000 children and over 50,000 teachers in it’s decade long journey and appreciate their effort,” said Rosaiah.
The seminar aimed to bring about an awareness about the increasing violence and juvenile crimes and the never before rise in student suicides in the recent years, which according to the speakers can be attributed to the experiences received by the child during his or her formative years and the school. Highlighting that the focus of education was being diverted towards higher education, Auuro’s founders explained, “The educational system was rapidly adopting to the changes, however, most of the adaptation and upgradation has been happening only at the higher education level. When it comes to schools most of the focus was diverted towards 10th and the 12th standard and surprisingly the very foundation, the kinder
garten and to some extent the primary education was completely left out of the scene. Research shows that what the child needs to achieve in life is established before five years of age. There is an outburst of activity in the first few years of life and we must capitalize on this and maximize the support of learning opportunity.” Another problem of harnessing the early years of children is the lack of formally trained educators. A number of provisions have been made such as the Right compulsory and free education and Early Childhood Care.