a) Limitations of Montessori Method

Ans: 1. The Montessori system does not work too well with children who are developmentally challenged.For instance, my nephew, who is on the very low end of the autism spectrum, needed a lot more direction and structure than his Montessori school provided. Moreover, in a non-Montessori school where he was required to do the same activities as other kids his age, his teachers would have pushed for a diagnosis sooner as he would have stood out.

2. Not all kids, at that young age, want or are able to be "free" to explore for three uninterrupted hours. This requires a child with an existing independent personality.

3. From a teacher's perspective, it is incredibly difficult to guide/teach each child at their own level if there are mixed age/level classrooms of 30 kids who are free to do numerous activities at the same time.

b) Tarabai Modak’s role in promoting the preschool movement in India

Ans: Padmabhooshan Shrimathi Tarabai Modak was a pioneer of preschool education in India. She was born in Gujarat in 1892. She was motivated by Gijubhai Badeka’s work in preschool education. They prepared necessary literature for the trident teachers and started a training college for pre primary teachers in 1925, which proved to be first training college for pre primary teachers in India.

In 1931, the movement of preschool education was extended by Tarabai to Maharashtra. There was a criticism that preschool education was meant only for children of rich. She took that as a challenge and conducted successfully a Balwadi in a Harijanwada at Amaravathi in Maharashtra.

In 1936, she started Shishu Vihar Kendra at Bombay, which served as a centre of Pre School Educational training. In 1945, she moved to Bordi & founded Gram Bala Shiksha Kendra. Later shifted to Kosabad, tribal area in 1957, where she tried her method son most neglected tribal children. A Balwadi indigenous nursery school.

She started two types of Balwadi’s at Bordi. They are Central Balwadis and Angan Balwadis. The Central Balwadis were run during regular school hours. Angan Balwadi’s were started at the convenience of children.

· The programme was on personal and general cleanliness, decoration, crafts & hand work, oral language, physical education, rhythmic movements & social activities.

· Teachers should make their own indigenous materials and use locally available material and also with the help of local artisans.

Tarabai’s educational method is a significant contribution to preschool education in India. Her method brought a salient revolution in the tribal community Kosabad. Tarabai Modak and Sarla Devi Sarabhai (PSE worker) were called one of the two “Montessori Mothers” as they have indianized the Montessori education and popularized it.

In 1923, she resigned from college and joined Shri Gijubhai Badheka who conducted a preprimary school in Bhavnagar and propogated Montessori’s theories. In 1926, she helped him establish the Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh (the new child education association) for the spread and development of preprimary school and teacher training center in Dadar in north Bombay. She started the Gram Bal Shiksha Kendra at Bordi in 1945. From 1946 to 1952 she was a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly. She visited Europe in 1949 to attend the Montessori conference held in Italy and to observe pre primary institutions in the European countries. In 1957 she shifted Gram Shiksha Kendra from Bordi to Kosbad. The Vikaswadi Project was launched and conducted at Kosbad under her constant guidance. She devoted the last 27 years of her life to this project which was the core of the Gram Bal Shiksha Kendra activities. She was the General Secretary of the Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh for over 25 years and subsequently became its vice president. She wrote a number of books for children and parents in marathi and gujarati. She also wrote books on child education in English. In 1962, the Government of India honoured her with the title of Padma Bhushan. She passed away on 31 August 1973 at the age of 81.

c) Objectives of the child-to-child strategy of communication

Ans: Many early learning programmes currently in use have been based on Western models and implemented in industrialized countries, with little validation that they will be similarly effective in the developing world. In developing countries, Child-to-Child is a promising approach to providing cost-effective and efficient interventions in early childhood development (ECD), especially for more marginalized or deprived populations.

The Child-to-Child approach is based on two assumptions. The first recognizes that in addition to their primary caregivers, young children are strongly influenced