Objective: Every child in the age range of 3-6 years has access
to free, safe, high quality, developmentally appropriate care
and education by 2025.
The learning process for a child commences immediately at birth.
Evidence
from neuroscience shows that over 85% of a child’s cumulative
brain
development occurs prior to the age of 6, indicating the critical
importance
of developmentally appropriate care and stimulation of the brain
in a child’s
early years to promote sustained and healthy brain development and
growth.
Indeed, analysis of brain scans of children who encountered
various levels of
neglect or deprivation in their early years revealed unfortunate
deficiencies
in the development of critical areas of the brain, and
corresponding adverse
effects on cognitive and emotional processing. Excellent care,
nurture,
nutrition, physical activity, psycho-social environment, and
cognitive and
emotional stimulation during a child’s first six years are thus
considered
extremely critical for ensuring proper brain development and,
consequently,
desired learning curves over a person’s lifetime.
This evidence from cognitive science is fully borne out by
numerous national
and international studies on the learning outcomes of children
having
various levels of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). A
study
conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and
Training
(NCERT) titled “The impact of pre-school education on retention in
primary
grades” (1992) on 30,000 children illustrated strong and direct
correlations
between exposure to pre-school education and retention rates,
attendance
rates, and most significantly learning outcomes in primary school
and beyond.
Various global studies have also revealed longer-term impacts:
quality preschool
education is strongly correlated with higher incomes and rates of
home
ownership, and lower rates of unemployment, crime, and arrest. In
terms of the
growth of the national economy, it has been estimated that the
development
of a strong ECCE programme is among the very best investments that
India
could make, with an expected return of `10 or more for every `1 invested. In
summary, it is recognised that investment in ECCE gives the best
chance for
children to grow up into good, moral, thoughtful, creative,
empathetic, and
productive human beings.
Studies tracking student learning outcomes clearly demonstrate
that children
who start out behind tend to stay behind throughout their school
years. At
the current time, there is a severe learning crisis in India,
where children are
enrolled in primary school but are failing to attain even basic
skills such as
foundational literacy and numeracy. A major part of this crisis
appears to be
occurring well before children even enter Grade 1. Far too many 6+
year olds are
entering Grade 1 with very limited ECCE. Furthermore, far too many
children
are enrolling in Grade 1 before the age of 6, due to a lack of any
suitable preprimary
options; these are often the children that remain the most behind
in
primary school and beyond. In fact, during the academic year
2016-17, over 70
lakh children were enrolled in Grade 1 prior to the age of 6 (Unified
District
Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2016-17).
This tragic deficiency in grade school-preparedness is particularly
marked
between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. This is because
students from
more advantaged families have greater access to role models, print
awareness,
language fluency in the school language, and strong learning
environments
at home, in addition to better nutrition, healthcare, and of
course access to
pre-school education. Investment in ECCE has the potential to give
all young
children such access in an engaging and holistic way, thereby
allowing all
children to participate and flourish in the educational system
throughout their
lives. ECCE is perhaps the greatest and most powerful equaliser.
For all these reasons - from brain development to
school-preparedness,
improved learning outcomes, equality and justice, employability,
and the
prosperity and economic growth of the country - India absolutely
must invest
in accessible and quality ECCE for all children.
What does quality ECCE entail? During the ages prior to 3 years, quality ECCE
includes the health and nutrition of both the mother and the
child, but also
crucially includes cognitive and emotional stimulation of the
infant through
talking, playing, moving, listening to music and sounds, and
stimulating all
the other senses particularly sight and touch. Exposure to
languages, numbers,
and simple problem-solving is also considered important during
this period.
From 3 to 6 years of age, ECCE includes continued healthcare and
nutrition,
but also crucially self-help skills (such as “getting ready on one’s
own”), motor
skills, cleanliness, the handling of separation anxiety, being
comfortable around
one’s peers, moral development (such as knowing the difference
between
“right” and “wrong”), physical development through movement and
exercise,
expressing and communicating thoughts and feelings to parents and
others,
sitting for longer periods of time in order to work on and
complete a task,
and generally forming all-round good habits.
Supervised play-based education, in groups and individually, is
considered
particularly important during this age range to naturally build up
the child’s
innate abilities and all-important lifelong skills of cooperation,
teamwork,
social interaction, compassion, equity, inclusiveness,
communication,
cultural appreciation, playfulness, curiosity, creativity, as well as the ability
to successfully and respectfully interact with teachers, fellow
students, staff,
and others. ECCE during these years also entails learning about
alphabets,
languages, numbers, counting, colours, shapes, drawing/painting,
indoor
and outdoor play, puzzles and logical thinking, visual art, craft,
drama,
puppetry, music, and movement.
Over 85% of cumulative brain
development occurs prior to the age of six.
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How should India best deliver quality ECCE? The most current research in
ECCE shows that children under the age of 8 do not tend to follow
the linear,
age-based educational trajectories that are prescribed to them by
policy or
by any preset timelines for curriculum; as a result, a large
proportion of
children in pre-school and Grades 1 and 2 are not receiving
developmentally
appropriate education suited to their needs. It is only at about
the age of 8
that children adapt to more prescripted learning.
Therefore, it is important that children of ages 3-8 have access
to a flexible,
multifaceted, multilevel, play-based, activity-based, and
discovery-based
education. It also becomes natural then to view this period, from
up to
three years of pre-school (ages 3-6) to the end of Grade 2 (age
8), as a single
pedagogical unit called the “Foundational Stage”. It is necessary,
therefore,
to develop and establish such an integrated foundational curricular
and
pedagogical framework, and corresponding teacher preparation, for
this
critical Foundational Stage of a child’s development.
At the current time, most early childhood education is delivered
in the
form of Anganwadis and private pre-schools, with a very small
proportion
coming from pre-schools run by NGOs and other organisations. Where
well supported, the Anganwadi system of pre-primary education,
under the
aegis of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), has
worked with
great success in many parts of India, especially with respect to
healthcare
for mothers and infants. These centres have truly helped support
parents
and build communities; they have served to provide critical
nutrition and
health awareness, immunisation, basic health check-ups, and
referrals and
connections to local public health systems, thus preparing crores
of children
for healthy development and therefore far more productive lives.
However,
while providing some essential cognitive stimulation, play, and
day care, most
Anganwadis have remained relatively light on the educational
aspects of ECCE.
Anganwadis are currently quite deficient in supplies and
infrastructure for
education; as a result, they tend to contain more children in the
2-4 year age
range and fewer in the educationally critical 4-6 year age range;
they also have
few teachers trained in or specially dedicated to early childhood
education.
Meanwhile, private and other pre-schools have largely functioned
as downward
extensions of primary school. Though providing better
infrastructure and
learning supplies for children, they consist primarily of formal
teaching
and rote memorisation, with high Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) and
limited
developmentally appropriate play-based and activity-based
learning; they
too generally contain teachers untrained in early childhood
education. They
generally are very limited on the health aspects, and do not
usually cater to
younger children in the age range of 0-4 years.
A recent “Early Childhood Education Impact” study (2017)
undertaken by
Ambedkar University, Delhi, showed that a significant proportion of
children
in India who completed pre-primary education, public or private,
did not have
the needed school readiness competencies when they joined primary
school.
Thus, in addition to problems of access, quality related deficiencies
such as
developementally inappropriate curriculum, the lack of qualified
and trained
educators, and less-than-optimal pedagogy have remained major
challenges
for many if not most existing early childhood learning programmes.
The Policy therefore focuses on developing an excellent curricular
and
pedagogical framework for early childhood education by NCERT in
accordance
with the above guidelines, which would be delivered through a
significantly
expanded and strengthened system of early childhood educational
institutions,
consisting of Anganwadis, pre-primary schools/sections co-located
with
existing primary schools, and stand-alone pre-schools, all of
which will employ
workers/teachers specially trained in the curriculum and pedagogy
of ECCE.
The numerous rich traditions of India over millennia in ECCE,
involving art,
stories, poetry, songs, gatherings of relatives, and more, that
exist throughout
India must also be incorporated in the curricular and pedagogical
framework
of ECCE to impart a sense of local relevance, enjoyment,
excitement, culture,
and sense of identity and community. The traditional roles of
families in
raising, nurturing, and educating children also must be strongly
supported
and integrated. In particular, family leave policies that afford
women and men
the ability to tend to their children in their earliest years of
life are critical in
enabling families to fulfil these traditional roles.
To reinforce the public system’s commitment to provide quality
early childhood
care and education to all children before the age of 6, the Policy
suggests that
ECCE be included as an integral part of the RTE Act. The 86th Amendment
of the Constitution in 2002 in fact provided an unambiguous
commitment
for universalisation of ECCE by directing the “State to provide
ECCE to all
children until they complete the age of six years”. Section 11 of
the RTE Act also
already discussed the possible public provision of early childhood
education:
“With a view to prepare children above the age of three years for
elementary
education and to provide ECCE for all children until they complete
the age of
six years, the appropriate Government may make necessary
arrangement for
providing free pre-school education for such children”. For the
sake of the
country and her children, it is time to ensure that these critical
commitments
for attaining quality ECCE for all are fulfilled as early as
possible.
Specific policy initiatives to attain quality early childhood
education for all
by 2025 will be as follows:
P1.1. Curricular
and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Education:
The mandate of the NCERT will be expanded to include the
development of
a Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood
Education, in
accordance with the above principles and guidelines.
The Framework will consist of two parts:
a. The first part will be a framework of guidelines for 0-3 year
olds - intended
for parents as well as Anganwadi teachers/workers - for
appropriate
cognitive stimulation of infants and young children in this age
range.
The guidelines would include how to make simple low-cost learning
aids
(such as baby rattles using a plastic bottle and colorful hard
candy; simple
melodic and percussion instruments that can be hit with sticks;
hats
and boats made from folding newspaper; etc.); these could form
craft
exercises for children in Anganwadis, and also be distributed to
parents
in the community.
b. The second part will be an educational framework for 3-8 year
olds
(Foundational Stage) - intended for parents as well as for
Anganwadis, preprimary
schools, and Grades 1 and 2 - consisting of a flexible, multilevel,
play-based, activity-based, and discovery-based system of learning
that
aims to teach young children alphabets, numbers, basic
communication
in the local language/mother tongue and other languages, colours,
shapes,
sounds, movement, games, elements of drawing, painting, music, and
the local arts, as well as various socio-emotional skills such as
curiosity,
patience, teamwork, cooperation, interaction, and empathy required
for
school-preparedness. The framework would also include suggestions
regarding exercises, puzzles, colouring books, connect-the-dots
drawings,
stories, rhymes, songs, games, etc. that would help in developing
children
in the Foundational Stage in a holistic way.
Because children learn languages most quickly during the period of
0-3 years and during the Foundational Stage of 3-8 years - and
because
learning languages is an extremely important aspect of children’s
cognitive
development-a key part of the Framework will be aimed at
instilling excellent
multilingual skills in children as early as is possible and
developmentally
appropriate.
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), and State and local
variations
of the Framework, will also extensively incorporate the numerous
rich
traditions of India with respect to ECCE - including national as
well as more
localised arts, songs, stories, rhymes, puzzles, riddles, games,
knowledge,
customs, and innovations.
P1.2. Significant
expansion and strengthening of facilities for early childhood
education: The new Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early
Childhood Education will be delivered to children up to the age of
6 via a four pronged
approach:
a. Strengthening and expansion of
the Anganwadi system to include
a robust education component: Anganwadi Centres will be heavily
built up to deal with the educational needs of children up to the
age of
6. In particular, Anganwadi workers trained in techniques of
cognitive
stimulation for infants and of play-based and multilevel education
for
3-6 year olds will be stationed across the country, so that there
is at least
one such worker at every Anganwadi. Each Anganwadi will be
provided
with excellent educational material as per the curricular and
pedagogical
framework for early childhood education. Additional quality
centres will
also be built around the country as needed to ensure that every
mother
and child has free and easy access to Anganwadi Centres.
Anganwadis will
aim to become outstanding educational centres that also contain a
strong
health and nutrition component.
b. Co-locating Angawadis with
primary schools: When possible, co-locating
Anganwadis with existing primary schools will provide further benefits
to
parents and children, both from the comprehensive services
provided by
the Anganwadi and the improved opportunity for children to learn
in a
cohesive educational environment with their siblings and peers at
primary
schools. Co-location of Anganwadis and primary schools will be
considered
a high priority during location planning for new Anganwadis and
primary
schools, as this will help to build better and stronger school
communities.
c. Co-locating pre-schools with
primary schools where possible:
Alternatively, up to three years of quality pre-school for ages
3-6 will be
added to existing or new primary schools. Such composite schools
will also
be supported by a package of health, nutrition, and
growth-monitoring
services, especially for the pre-school students. The care and
educational
requirements of 0-3 year olds in the region would continue to be
handled
by neighborhood Anganwadis in such cases.
d. Building stand-alone
pre-schools: High quality stand-alone
pre-schools
will be built in areas where existing Anganwadis and primary
schools are
not able to take on the educational requirements of children in
the age
range of 3-6 years. Such pre-schools would again be supported by
the health,
nutrition, and growth-monitoring services as required for children
in this
age range.
All four of the above approaches will be implemented in accordance
with local
needs and feasibility of geography and infrastructure. Overall,
the goal will be
to ensure that every child of 0-6 years has free and easy access
to quality ECCE.
This will require suitable monitoring of quality and outcomes for
each of the
four methods and in each State.
Due to the equalising nature of ECCE, special attention and high
priority will
be given to those districts or locations that are particularly
socio-economically
disadvantaged.
Because of the multi-level, play-based nature of the curriculum
and pedagogy
framework for early childhood education in the age range 3-8
years, no hard
separation of ages in this range would be required for Anganwadis
and preschools
(including when they are co-located with primary schools), except
as
needed for social reasons or due to limitations of institutional
infrastructure.
All Anganwadi Centres and pre-primary schools will be linked, if
not
physically then formally/pedagogically, to a primary school in the
area, as
the lowest rung in the School Complex (see P7.3.1).
Universal access to quality early
childhood education is perhaps the best
investment that India can make for our
children’s and our nation’s future.
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P1.3. Oversight
of Early Childhood Education by the Ministry of Human
Resource Development: All aspects of early childhood education will
come under the purview of the Ministry of Human Resource
Development
(MHRD), in order to ensure continuity of curriculum and pedagogy
from preprimary
school to primary school, and to ensure due attention nationwide
to the foundational aspects of education.
A detailed plan outlining the operational and financial
implications of the
integration of early childhood education with the school education
system
will be developed in consultation with the Ministry of Women and
Child
Development (MWCD) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
(MHFW). This plan will be finalised by the end of 2019 by a special
task force
jointly constituted by the MWCD, MHFW, and MHRD.
At the current time, Anganwadis are under the purview of the MWCD.
Regardless of which ministry is officially in charge of running the
Anganwadis
(which will be decided jointly by the ministries and the joint
task force),
the Policy stresses that the responsibility for planning and
implementation
of all ECCE curriculum and pedagogy in Anganwadis and all
pre-schools
lie with the MHRD - just as health services in ICDS lie with the
MHFW.
This transition would greatly help in optimising and smoothly
integrating
the delivery of quality early childhood and foundational education
by the
MHRD across Anganwadis, pre-schools, and primary schools.
P1.4. Design
of learning-friendly environments: Anganwadis, pre-schools, and
primary schools will all have high quality physical infrastructure
that is
conducive to learning. A committee of cognitive scientists, early
childhood
education experts, artists, and architects will be formed in each
State (or
locality) to design spaces, within the funding allocations, that
are truly inviting
and inspiring places to spend time and learn.
The physical environments for early childhood education will be
welcoming
and stimulating, with accessible infrastructure, drinking water,
and toilets;
they will be safe, clean, and brightly lit. Classrooms will allow flexible
seating
arrangements; learning materials will be safe, stimulating,
developmentally
appropriate, low cost, and preferably created using
environmentally-friendly
and locally-sourced materials. While the teacher/educator will be
involved
in the selection and development of learning materials, children
could also
participate. Some examples of learning materials are picture
cards, puzzles,
dominoes, picture story books, blocks, simple musical instruments,
number
towers and rods, puppets, materials for arts and crafts, and
colouring books.
Posters, graphics, and art containing alphabets, words, numbers,
shapes,
colours, etc. will be placed on walls at the eye levels of
children for high quality
stimulation and engagement.
P1.5. Professionalisation
of high quality educators for early childhood education:
State Governments will prepare cadres of professionally qualified
educators
for early childhood education, through stage-specific professional
training,
mentoring mechanisms, and career mapping. Necessary facilities
will also be
created for the initial professional preparation of these
educators and their
Continuous Professional Development (CPD).
Current Anganwadi workers and educators handling the pre-school
education
component of the ICDS will be given the opportunity to participate
in a
6-month special training programme to enable them to carry out effective
early childhood teaching-learning practices.
Access for children aged 3 - 8 years to a
flexible, multifaceted, multilevel, playbased
and activity-based education is of
utmost importance.
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P1.6. Instituting
an effective and quality regulatory system for ECCE: An effective
quality regulation or accreditation system for ECCE will be
instituted as
recommended in the National ECCE Policy (2013). This regulatory
system will
cover all pre-school education - private, public, and
philanthropic - in order to
ensure compliance with essential quality standards.
P1.7. Generating
demand from stakeholders for early childhood education:
In order to generate demand for ECCE, all stakeholders, including
policy
makers, parents, teachers, and community members must be
well-informed
on how a young child’s needs are so different from what formal
education
provides, and why fulfilling these needs is so important for a
child’s lifelong
learning and development. Large-scale advocacy through public
service
messages and media campaigns, direct communication between
pre-primary
education programmes and parents, and wide-scale dissemination of
simple
methods and materials to enable parents to actively support their
children’s
early learning needs will be prioritised and proactively
supported.
The mandate of the NCERT will be
expanded to include the development
of a Curricular and Pedagogical
Framework for Early Childhood
Education.
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Extension of the RTE Act to include early childhood
education: Given
the necessity and importance of developmentally-appropriate
learning
during a child’s most critical phase of brain development, the
availability
of free and compulsory quality pre-primary education for all 3-6
year olds
will be included as an integral part of the RTE Act (see P8.4.1). Here, by
‘compulsory’, it is meant that it will be obligatory for the
public system to
provide appropriate and quality educational infrastructure,
facilities, and
educators to all children in the age group 3-6 years, with a
special emphasis
on reaching the most socio-economically disadvantaged children
through
ECCE
services.
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