Child care and early education are one of the delicate sectors of the educational stream. Since teaching a child requires a different approach and technique to the ones used while teaching a teenager, there needs to be taken special care for it. This is where a specialized course can help in. DECE course is one of those prime courses on offer designed to meet the needs of early childhood care. The course, i.e. DECE full form is Diploma Program Early Childhood Care and Education.
| Particulars | Details |
| Course Name | DECE |
| Full Form | Diploma in Early Childhood Education |
| Course Type | Diploma |
| Duration | 1 to 4 Years |
| Eligibility Criteria | 12th pass |
The course is a well-designed holistic package that aims to help build considerable knowledge for students to work with children. This helps to impart the necessary attitudes, skills, and more to handle and care for the children. The course is mainly for those who want to develop their career in teaching and guiding the children up to the age of six years.
The course is part of continuous education and knowledge upbringing and helps develop people for fleeting careers in the playschool, nursery school, daycare, and more. The course teaches the attributes needed to manage and behave with a child, behavioral traits, management skills, identifying and caring for the child, and more. The course is offered by many universities across India like IGNOU and more. The course comes with a duration ranging from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 4 years.
Here are the eligibility criteria for this course:
The importance of early childhood education and its good benefits is becoming more widely recognized, and therefore the scope is expanding. This course gives a comprehensive overview of elementary education and Early Childhood Education strategies that may get used to ensure effective concept learning.
Since the advent of modern-day syllabus structures, early childhood studies give an attitude reformation for children under the age of eight.
On the institute's website or at their on-campus admissions office, an application form will be accessible. The candidate must provide an authenticated copy of supporting papers with the admission form. It must get provided either by mail or in person at the admission office. While some colleges may administer an entrance exam, the institutions would admit students based on their performance on the 10+2 or public exam.
Students get admitted to most institutes that offer the course based on their performance on a relevant entrance exam.Most institutes take into account the scores and rank obtained in national-level examinations. Such as State University Entrance Test, IGNOU Entrance Exam, and so on, and some universities hold their entrance examinations such as Montessori Entrance Exams, National Council for Teacher Education Entrance Exam. It gets based on which the admission process gets initiated.
The institution will publish a rank list based on the results, from which the students will get summoned for the counseling session. The counseling session will get utilized to guide students into the correct path. It will help to learn about their strengths and shortcomings.
Some important course preparation recommendations for a candidate pursuing a Diploma in Early Childhood Education:
The Diploma in Early Childhood Education syllabus is one of the most crucial elements that a student should concentrate on since it helps focus throughout the test.
Make a course plan that will assist the student in planning according to the study of the task, allowing them to maintain both balanced.
Regularly practice mantras and medicine-making procedures so that it becomes a learning experience for practical exams.
The program gets offered by almost 30 private institutes. It gets accredited by the National Council for Teacher Education and connected with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). It's advisable to contact specific colleges for entrance criteria and eligibility because it's a specialty subject provided by a small number of schools.
| S.No. | Colleges Name | Location | Average Fees |
| 1 | Indira Gandhi National Open University | New Delhi | 2400 average |
| 2 | Tamil Nadu Open University | Chennai | 5300 average |
| 3 | Jaipur national university | Jaipur | 11,200 average |
| 4 | Amity university | Noida | 17,250 average |
| 5 | Bombay Teachers’ Training College | Mumbai | 22,320 average |
| 6 | Manav Bharati Nursery Teachers Training Institute | New Delhi | 30,000 average |
| 7 | SIES Institute of Comprehensive Education | Mumbai | 50,000 average |
| 8 | Maharani Teacher Training College | Tiruppur | 40,000 average |
| 9 | Bilaspur's Maharishi University of Management and Technology | Bilaspur | 51,000 average |
| 10 | Dhanbad's PK Roy Memorial College for Women | Dhanbad | 2000 average |
Classroom lectures and practical activities are part of the Diploma in Early Childhood Education degree curriculum. Projects, classrooms, and community training programs are examples of practical sessions. The one-year diploma program's curriculum gets separated into two semesters.
Semester I
Semester II
As the value of primary education has grown in the educational sphere, so has the number of centers available to support it. According to experts, the child care and education industry will expand at a pace of 14% over the next ten years, which is outstanding compared to other companies.Candidates with a diploma in Early Childhood Education can find work in government and private sector organizations that strive to improve the welfare and education of children.
Here are the most popular job descriptions and the typical median annual pay that an Early Childhood Education certificate holder can expect to earn.
The diploma program serves as a basis for students interested in pursuing a career in child teaching. Graduate students can concentrate in either the Elementary or Secondary educational fields after finishing the course. Candidates who complete their education can sit for National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) certification exams and begin their careers as teachers with an NCTE license.