7 pointers to Choose the best curriculum for the Preschool.

With a plethora of curriculum available it is often confusing and taking a decision can be daunting. So lets us take a minute here and think who is going to benefit the maximum from this decision?  

You are right- our customers. It follows naturally to consider the curriculum which provides maximum value to the target market to be the most relevant.  To understand that we need to journey through what our target market considers as a maximum value package. 

As understood from the market observation, the requirements of an average Indian parent from a preschool in a metro city would be the following-:

•  The child should be school ready ie should be able to pass the basic admission test that the private schools conduct. He or she after preschool should recognize the basic linguistic and numeric blocks. The child should also be able to express himself or herself.
• The child should be able to interact socially  The child should be comfortable with others as most of the family is nuclear and a sense of discipline and routine should be instilled by the preschool. They should know that eating is allowed only during break and that napping only during nap time.
• The child gets a healthy round development with an insight into what the child’s inclination
• A child should be able to express his likes or potential . He should be exposed to a different form of arts and should be aware of the concept of music and art
• The child develops basic skills like putting on his shoes, dress, dine on his own, etc He should understand that there is a step-by-step process to every action.

Lets see how the curriculum can help the school to offer these services to the parents.

The Child being school ready 
This is the most important need of any parent is enable their kid to face the school admission test and make them school ready. This requires a bit of academics being trained into the child, which is normally assessed. So it is of the foremost importance that the child is imparted with intellectual know-how and trained in academia. The one syllabi that come to mind of course is Montessori. There is no doubt that to date Montessori is the best way to develop independent and self-disciplined study habits. The manipulative and linguistic skills are better learned through this method and so while mixing different age groups of kids might not be accepted by parents, the academic part is something which would be welcome.

The Child developing social skills:
Children today are mostly hailing from nuclear families with little or no exposure to any adults except the parents. Their first opportunity is the preschool and so the parents expect the preschool to help develop the social skills, both interpersonal and linguistic. Reggio Emilia helps in collaborative work with different teachers. The child learns to form opinions and understand that others may not agree with him. Waldorf also focuses on teamwork again helping to build interpersonal skills. So the collaborative and team culture inculcation as taught by Reggio and Waldorf needs to be imbibed into the curriculum.

A round development of the child along with insights into the child’s special abilities:

High scope and Reggio Amelia both offer different ways to allow the child to explore his or her potential through exposure to art and other subjects other than academics. Atelier and hundred languages of a child help the teacher to guide the child through their exploration into art and their own abilities and affinity towards them. Highscope offers a chance to develop lessons according to the child’s individual interest. That is something which will help the parents to find the child’s inclination. 

The child learning basic life-skills

The children when they come to preschool are pretty dependent on adults for everything including basics like potty training. So kids should be taught and trained in things like gardening, dining etiquette, etc. Waldorf curriculum has always focused on imparting life skills with kids being encouraged to even explore things like basic cooking, housekeeping, and even skills like masonry.

Conclusion
As is evident from the above requirements of the parents of the preschoolers, in a country like India, no single curriculum will be able to offer all that is required. With the kind of competitive life that the preschooler is going to face in the future, strict adherence to any one curriculum will only end up in some deficit or the other. As I with my team plan to start a chain of preschools in tier two cities, I would go for an eclectic curriculum that is created for this segment specifically. We will have to develop and tailor-make a particular curriculum that provides a complete package to the parent. Whatever the curriculum we choose, our primary aim is to give value to our customers and cater to their expressed and unexpressed needs. I believe that only an ECLECTIC curriculum will enable the school to do so. Therefore I would opt for developing the curriculum keeping the need of the target segment in mind.