Parents from disadvantaged communities immensely value quality education for their children but remain unaware of what the indicators of quality are in ECE - as per a report, 98% of parents demand daily homework for preschoolers. We realized that preschools partnering with parents and introducing them to holistic development and play based learning is the best way to create a sustainable change.
Our Parent Engagement is delivered in a blended way via schools that we partner with -
School and teacher coaching: A handbook of strategies for schools to effectively engage with parents during the academic year.
Workshops: In-person sessions for parents to interact and learn about key themes like child development, early learning, behavior management etc.
Play & Learn Worksheets: A set of 36 bilingual worksheets that schools can send home each week that encourage parents to engage in constructive activities that they do with children. CLAP - Children Learning, Assisted by Parents - Whatsapp based chatbot for sending instructions on completing worksheets, and Helping Hands videos containing information and suggestions for parents to engage in enriching, play based activities to positively affect the environment that the child is growing in.
KEF has delivered this program in 80+ schools in Bangalore and Mangalore and has partnered with the Karnataka state government to include parent engagement in the govt preschool curriculum.
In 2019-20:
We conducted 160+ workshops with an avg attendance of 60%
6000+ students received the play and learn worksheets across our partner schools with an avg return rate of 80% students.
In the surveys we conducted, we saw 30% parents showing a positive shift in their understanding of indicators of quality in ECE and positive attitudes towards play.
This nudged us to create a Whatsapp chatbot - CLAP when schools closed due to COVID and leverage technology so our PE content could be taken to more families. We are now seeking collaborations with organizations to extend our PE content and programs.
You can explore our Parent youtube videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPa7TSt1P14yIdF-RizC-6A/playlists to check if the content suits your needs. You can also reach out to us through the HundrED page, or by emailing us at connect@keyeducationfoundation.org, with the subject - “Exploring KEF Parent Engagement for ”. We would love to take our Parent Engagement to a wider community.
