Teachers and little learners alike at Anganwadi centres and pre-primary government schools in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district are exploring a ‘hands-on’ mentorship and learning experience aimed at bringing independence, creativity and experiential learning into their classrooms.

As a part of Punjab’s first Montessori education initiative in government Anganwadis (government-run child care and mother care centres) and pre-primary schools, which was launched in collaboration with Chandigarh-based Vivek High Montessori Institute (VHMI), the project is reshaping the early learning landscape.

Training educators

At the heart of the transformation are the educators themselves. “As a part of the training to understand the Montessori style of teaching, I have been taking theory and practical sessions. The training showed me that a child is naturally curious. My job is not to control that, rather it is to guide it. Previously, we would often tell children to do certain actions in a particular manner, now we involve them in every task. I have rearranged the classroom setup, toys and books are now kept within their reach so that any child can pick up whatever they want and play or read it. The children love activities so much. Earlier, we used to dictate, but now we guide them through,” said 40-year-old Geetika, an Anganwadi worker at Nandachaur village, who is undergoing Community Rooted Education Practitioners training imparted by VHMI, the Association Montessori Internationale-affiliated institution designed to carry the Montessori philosophy to the grassroots level.

The Montessori education project was launched in January this year, collectively by the Hoshiarpur district administration in association with the Red Cross and the VHMI, seeking to integrate the Montessori methodologies into the government education system to bring transformational change in the way early childhood education is delivered in rural and semi-urban areas.

“As a pilot initiative, 25 Anganwadis and 25 pre-primary schools have been selected from across Hoshiarpur district, with five institutions from each development block chosen to ensure balanced geographical representation and district-wide outreach. The project has been carefully designed to cover the entire district and establish model learning centres with classrooms being redesigned as Montessori learning environments, complete with child-sized furniture, hands-on learning apparatus, and age-appropriate teaching materials that can serve as benchmarks for future expansion,” deputy commissioner Aashika Jain told The Hindu.

Programme till September

Nineteen Anganwadi supervisors have already completed intensive hands-on training, with a three-phase programme for Anganwadi workers and teachers continuing through September 2026. “VHMI’s trained facilitators visit classrooms monthly, providing mentoring and ensuring that Montessori principles take root in practice, not just in theory,” said Meenu Sahi, founder and executive director of VHMI on Monday (June 1, 2026) as the institute commenced its new session of primary and elementary courses for educators in Chandigarh.

Will help 20,000 children

In its first phase, approximately 2,000 children are likely to benefit, even as the long-term vision is to expand the model to cover all Anganwadis across Hoshiarpur district, thereby benefiting nearly 20,000 children.

“Earlier, I would teach children to repeat after me. Now, I watch them discover things on their own. We have toddlers and we have been doing activities with them, teaching them everything through play. But in this Montessori system, the focus is on practical learning. The difference I felt is that usually, we tend to tell young children not to do certain tasks. But here, it is about making the child self-dependent and encouraging them to do every task with their own hands. As far as I am concerned, I have developed a lot of patience with children,” said Sharmila Rani, an Anganwadi supervisor.

Rajni Devi, a pre-primary teacher at Singriwala government school, said: “We used to give bookish knowledge to the children. In this system, the child works with their own hands. They learn by doing things practically. We used to think Montessori was only for big city schools. Now, I see it belongs here too.”