School readiness

The enrollment in primary schools has dramatically increased to 96% (ASER 2013) in the context of right to education. But still the issues of retention, repetition, drop out and learning levels remain greatest challenges in the field of education in India. Therefore child’s entry, adjustment and success in school needs to be understood and in this context transition to school becomes a significant event. Transition is used to refer to period of time before and after the child moves from either home or early chi ldhood program (UNICEF, 2012) . As acknowledged in literature, for the transition to be smooth, children need to be ready for schools and schools ready for children (UNICEF, 2012). Thus transition and school readiness are linked concepts. In the early literature, school readiness emphasized only on cognitive and academic skills. While now, one looks at school readiness as a more holistic concept. It does not occur suddenly but school readiness can be considered as an outcome of child’s life up to now (Janus, Hughes Duku,2010). Along with this for the school ready child to function, there has to be ready school that will support child’s learning and development. Taking these factors into consideration, UNICEF created a model of school readiness where ready families, ready schools and ready children are three important dimensions that interact to create school readiness. Further, it also talks of transition periods where schools, families and communities play an important role