The Developmental Readiness of Government School Teachers

Abstract

School readiness involves readiness in terms of ability to reading, writing and use numbers along with emotional and psychological readiness to make successful entry to formal schooling. It has been established that academic readiness is the most important component of school readiness. The present study was aimed to assess the knowledge of rural and urban government school teachers of Ludhiana regarding developmental readiness. The study was based on 100 teachers (i.e. 50 rural and 50 urban) teaching Class – I. The sample was selected from seven Government Primary Schools purposively selected from rural as well as urban locales of Ludhiana District. Self- Structured Teachers’ Knowledge Questionnaire was used to assess the academic readiness of rural and urban government school children. The questionnaire comprised of five open ended questions relating to academic readiness expected to be achieved by students of Class-I. The comparison between knowledge levels of rural and urban teachers revealed that urban teachers had better knowledge than rural teachers. Teachers play an important role in building a child’s success in their first years of school. They provide structure and help children grow in their pre-reading and pre-writing skills, teach pre-arithmetical skills and help children understand themselves.