How beneficial is it to start the child's education at a very early age?

(Topic suggested by Anisha Jain-Shah,VA,U.S.A.)

Introduction:-

As a parent, our prime concern for our children is his education for upon it lies his future in terms of his mental growth, knowledge, financial security, social status & above all our sense of fulfillment as successful parents। Our concern here is,'Should the child's education be started at a very early age of his life? How beneficial or not is it for child's growth & development? Our educators in past, had given real thought of concern regarding this matter. That's why, all over the world, it has been widely accepted that primary education of a child should not be started before the age of 5. This is because these are the years of child's physical,mental & emotional development. His cognitive & intellectual skills are not well-developed till this age. He is trying to adjust in his environment by learning different skills. Moreover, he feels insecure in this world because of lack of understanding of its complexities. He needs constant care, supervision & encouragement throughout this period of growth & development. That's why educators advise that child should be in protective environment until the age of 5, by which his linguistic, analytic, social & emotional skills have developed to some extent. But what we find today is that child is pushed into the pre-school education right from the age of 2, first play-group, then nursery, then K.G. & then primary education. We are in a hurry to get our child educated as early as possible.

The reasons or advantages of early childhood schooling:-

• The amount of information & knowledge is growing day by day & the world has become a global hub. The child needs to learn many things not only to earn his livings but also to become really successful in life. So the parents think that it will be good for the child to start learning as early as possible.
• Access to any kind of information is so easy & so influential because of various means of mass-communication that child automatically tends to learn, whether good or bad, new things faster than their older generations. Then why not to use his skills in education rather wasting them at home. Parents think that their children are smarter enough to take loads of early education.
• The competition in the professional field is so fierce that parents don't want to take chance with their children's education. They try to provide best of the available facilities within their resources. They think that if some one's child is behaving smart after joining pre-school then why shouldn't I be doing the same for my child? They don't want their child to be left behind.
• Because of nuclear families, parents have to fight on dual fronts of earning as well as taking care of their child's study. When both parents are working then problem becomes more serious. Parents tend to get their child admitted in pre-school education groups as early as possible so that they can carry on their career without worrying about child's education.
• As the knowledge & education is getting more & more complex day by day, many of the parents find it difficult to cope with it. They are left with no choice but to get admitted their child in an educational institute as early as possible so that he can learn those things which parents can't teach.
• Parents have no choice right now regarding taking decision about when to start formal education of their child. Our education system is such that if you haven't provided proper pre-school education to your child then you won't be able to get your child admitted anywhere later on. You have to be with the system or you are left out.

Problems or Disadvantages of early childhood schooling:-

• The education system is so commercialized that the basic concept of 'learn while you play' has been forgotten all together.
• The child's important years of growth & development are consumed by his schooling.
• The child hardly finds time to play or to develop his interest in any activity he likes because of starting his education very early.
• Due to lake of physical activity child's physical development suffers at a very early age of his life upon which lies the foundation of his future health.
• Due to the competitive structure of our educational system, child is forced very early into the rat-race for materialistic success.
• Because of performance anxiety, a child may face psychological problems very early in his life. He may succumb to the unnatural & unhealthy pressure created by the heavy loads of the study along with high expectations of parents.
• Because of the misconception that good education means getting good marks in exams, child may not learn any subject thoroughly but he will mug everything from the exam-point of view. This may lead to failure in his professional life because of lack of thorough knowledge, both theoretically as well as practically.

Probable solutions or alternatives for the problem of early schooling:-

1. Let us assume that it is not possible to change the current education system & child has to start learning at a very early age, then we should try to find the solution within the system itself. Competitiveness in studies should be curtailed by changing the pattern of exams. The teachers should be trained to deliver thorough knowledge of the subject & children should be encouraged to be creative,curious & courageous in studies. Parents should be assisted whenever required regarding the problems they might be facing for their children's studies. Schools are supposed to be educational temples not shops.
2. Some revolutionary parent groups have started imparting home education to their children avoiding the need for the child to spend time in the school daily. Here parents are at liberty to select what to teach, when to teach & how to teach. But this system only works when parents are well-educated and capable of dealing with various aspects of education.
3. Starting pre-schooling late (i.e. after age of 4) can be another option. That means the whole educational process of the child gets delayed by a couple of years. The only problem is that child starts earning late by 2 years or so. That, in my opinion, should not be a cause of concern these days because average life expectancy is close to 70 in most parts of the world & parents can bear the cost of studies & loss of income from their children for 2 years more. But if we want to compensate the loss, we can increase the age of retirement by 2 years to balance the equation. That seems to be a more logical solution to me, but it requires a great deal of paradigm shift from policy makers, educationists, educational institutes & parents.

What is the role of the parents in present scenario?:-

• Parents should upgrade their knowledge time and again. They should make themselves versed with the latest of information & technologies which help themselves in dealing with their child's education. Reading & effective use of Internet & mass-media can be of great help for them in this regard. You have to learn many things before you can expect your child to learn something.
• Parents should encourage reading habits in their children right from the beginning. This increases their imagination & creativity along with information & knowledge.
• Children should not be insisted only to focus on their studies. Their syllabus only represents a very small portion of the enormous amount of knowledge available in the world. General knowledge, knowledge of current affairs, sports, cultural activities & value education is as important as studies for success & personality development.
• All curiosities of child must be satisfied with utmost interest even if it takes some time out of your busy schedule. Remember, a curious child dissatisfied may turn into a furious child.
• Child should be allowed to learn from the mistakes. Too much of assistance, supervision & protection hampers his abilities to deal with the problems.
• We should not seek to get social mileage out of child's performance. This creates 'performance anxiety' in child's mind resulting in deteriorated performance despite of natural talent.
• Let the child do whatever he wants, not what you want him to do. Don't try to satisfy your unfulfilled desires by means of your child's achievements.
• Don't force him to excel in everything. Try to find out the areas of his interest by trial & error and encourage him to pursue his path in those areas.
• No two children are identical, not even twins. Every child is unique but not everyone is genius. If some child has some extraordinary skill at a very young age, then not necessarily your child should be able to do the same. If he is really interested, he may start learning the same thing late but still excel in it. Have patience with your child. Let him grow at his pace.
• Don't expect too much out of your child every time. He may mess up with his performance occasionally. Make him realize about his faults & encourage him to fight back. Don't be a critic of your child but be a supporter.
• Enjoy & celebrate his success. Give him due rewards but avoid bribery to get his work done every time.
• Let us not confuse education with the capacity to earn. A person can earn money than a scholar even without formal education. earning & education are independent of each other. The purpose of education is to make a person capable to face the realities of life, to make him use his knowledge for the well-being of the society & to achieve the sense of fulfillment by getting real success in his life without compromising the moral values.
• Lastly, before we can expect anything out of our child, we have to look at ourselves first. Mere education is not going to get him anywhere near the success but it requires good personality & great character to achieve the real success. The child learns all the most important values & virtues of life from his parents, which ultimately become the foundation of his personality & character। One cannot instill these values in child just by telling him to follow but you have to forge those values into your attitude, behaviour & character first so that child can realize their importance। Remember, we are their role models। They will listen everything we say but follow only that what we do. Don't worry about your child not listening to you but remember he is always observing you.

"मासूम बच्चों के हाथों को चाँद सितारे छू लेने दो ;

वर्ना दो किताबें पढ़के तो ये भी हम जैसे हो जायेंगे।"

-निदा फाजली