Page 46 - EW August 2025

Cover Story

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE & EDUCATION

elatedly and mercifully for India’s 65 million chil-
dren below five years of age, NEP 2020 accords high
Bimportance to early childhood care and education
(ECCE) — the socio-economic benefits of which have been
persistently propagated by your editors.
Since 2010, EducationWorld has convened 12 annual
ECCE national conferences and initiated the annual EW In-
dia Preschool Rankings to impact the critical importance of
professionally administered ECCE provided to pre-primary
age children, citing numerous international and national
studies indicating that children’s brains are 80 percent
developed by age eight. In 2000, Dr. James Heckman, a
Nobel Prize winning economist, posited that a dollar spent
on professionally provided ECCE saves $16 in the education
continuum because children have good foundation.
Accepting this overwhelming body of evidence, NEP Anganwadi centre: formidable upgradation challenge
2020 mandates free and compulsory formal ECCE for chil-
dren in the 3-6 age group by reconfiguration of the centu- sociation of India.
ries-old 10+2 primary-secondary schooling system into a But although sending children in ages 3-5 for pre-prima-
new 5+3+3+4 continuum, formally integrating ECCE into ry education in neighbourhood nurseries and playschools
elementary education. NEP 2020 mandates three years of has become normative for middle class urban households,
play-based preschool education followed by two years of parents in poor and socio-economically underprivileged
preparatory classes for all children until age eight. homes are dependent upon low-quality ECCE provided by
India’s youngest children are also served by an estimated the 1.39 million Aganawadi Centres (AWCs) established by
60,000 private preschools for children of the middle and the Central government in 1976, under the Integrated Child
elite classes. Over 600 private preschools, some of which Development Services (ICDS) program and supported by
are of global standard are annually rated on ten parameters state governments. However since AWCs are essentially
of ECCE excellence by EducationWorld which introduced nutritional programmes for infants and lactating moth-
these rankings in 2010, to impact the value of profession- ers that also provide early childhood education and care,
ally administered ECCE to children from earliest age upon teaching-learning is minimal with only one ‘worker’ and
education policy formulators and parents countrywide. occasional assistant obliged to provide nutrition and edu-
The annual EWIPR (EducationWorld India Preschool cation. Now with NEP 2020 having mandated compulsory
Rankings) have served a useful social purpose inasmuch formal education for all children in the 3-5 age group, the
as enrolling youngest children in formal ECCE institutions challenge is to upgrade the quality of education provided to
has progressed beyond the upper middle to almost the en- AWC children and accommodate the remainder 50 percent
tire middle class comprising an estimated 28 million urban in AWCs and schools countrywide.
households and the number of private preschools has risen To implement NEP mandates in ECCE, in 2021, the gov-
from 15,000 in 2000 to 60,000 currently according to es- ernment launched the Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0
timates of the Mumbai-based Early Childhood Association (integrated nutrition support) programme, under which
of India (estb.2011) which has a membership of 48,000 a target to upgrade 200,000 anganwadis over five years
preschools/educators countrywide. (2021-26) was set. However, five years on, according to
“NEP’s acknowledgement of the critical importance of the Press Information Bureau, as of July 21, 2025, a mere
ECCE and extension of its duration to class III during which 57,897 out of 200,000 AWCs have been upgraded — an
all children will joyfully acquire foundational literacy and indicator of the government’s snail-paced implementation.
numeracy — if implemented diligently in the country’s 1.4 Another promising initiative is the National Initiative for
million anganwadis and primary schools — could prove Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy
to be a game-changer in Indian education. It will build a (NIPUN) Bharat Mission which has set a target for all chil-
strong foundation for all future learning. We are jubilant dren in the three-eight years age group attaining founda-
that our long-time advocacy of universal professionally- tional reading and numeracy skills by 2026-27. Five years
provided ECCE has paid off,” says Dr. Swati Popat Vats, later, NIPUN Bharat is far behind target. According to the
president of Podar Jumbo Kids, a 452-strong chain of pre- Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024, 67.3 per-
schools and founding president of the Early Childhood As- cent of class II children cannot read ‘letters’ (alphabet) and

46 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2025