Page 48 - EW August 2025

Cover Story

66 percent cannot identify 1-9 numerals. Ditto the widely University and IIT-Delhi, former education specialist at the
welcomed first-ever National Curriculum Framework for World Bank, former professor and founder-director of the
Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022 has not taken off be- Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development at
cause of lack of trained teachers to deliver ECCE in AWCs. Ambedkar University, Delhi.
A positive fallout of NEP 2020 mandating compulsory Five years on, fulfilling NEP 2020’s mandate to univer-
ECCE for all children in the 3-6 age group is that several salise ECCE by 2030 requires the grand Saksham Anganwa-
state governments countrywide have added pre-primary/ di and NIPUN Bharat Mission to be matched with substan-
kindergarten sections in government primary schools, for- tially larger budgetary outlays. The Union Budget 2025-26
mally integrating ECCE in the school education system. This allocations of Rs.26,889 crore to the ICDS programme and
will increase the number of public preschools significantly. Rs.2,700 crore for NIPUN Bharat are grossly inadequate to
Yet the biggest stumbling block to realisation of NEP upgrade the country’s 1.39 million anganwadis and “build a
2020’s mandate to cadre of high-quality ECCE teachers” to deliver professional
universalise ECCE is ECCE. Five years on, government’s failure to match policy
that the ICDS/NIPUN intent with financial commitment to ECCE — a neglected
Bharat schemes have area for over seven decades that is belatedly accorded high
not been followed with importance by NEP 2020 — will have a domino effect and
sufficient budgetary undermine learning outcomes in primary-secondary and
allocation. The Cen- higher education in the years ahead.
tral government’s al-
location for the ICDS
programme for the Primary-Secondary
country’s 1.39 million
anganwadis is a mere Education
Rs.26,889 crore in Dr. Venita Kaul
2025-26 — Rs.3,361 per
child per year — grossly insufficient to provide adequate
nutrition let alone professionally administered early child-
hood education as envisaged by NEP 2020. Moreover no
additional budgetary and policy provision has been made
to train and upgrade the skills of the country’s 2.3 million
anganwadi workers and helpers to enable them to deliver
quality ECCE — an essential mandate of NEP 2020. The
overwhelming majority of the country’s 2.3 million an-
ganwadi workers are class X/XII graduates with minimal
teacher training in ECCE and are paid a pittance (Rs.8,000-
12,000 per month).
“The high importance accorded to ECCE in NEP 2020 has
given the sector national visibility and created awareness
and discourse about the critical role of foundational stage
education. The government has also done well to quickly
launch the NIPUN Bharat Mission and NCF-FS 2022. But Primary school students: learning outcomes problem
sadly, the policy’s intent to universalise high-quality ECCE
has not been backed up with adequate budgetary alloca- part from mandating compulsory professionally
tions. While the policy has tasked the country’s 1.39 million administered early childhood care and education
anganwadis to provide quality ECCE, there is no roadmap A(ECCE) which will provide children a strong base
for building “a cadre of high-quality ECCE teachers in an- for elementary education, in primary-secondary education
ganwadis” as envisaged by NEP 2020. Most anganwadis NEP 2020 mandates a radical and revolutionary pedagogy
are served by a solitary under-paid worker who manages shift from memorisation and rote learning to experiential
multiple responsibilities — 26 according to some estimates. learning pedagogies; compulsory vocational education;
NEP 2020’s fifth anniversary is an opportune time for gov- exam reforms to test children’s conceptual comprehension,
ernment to assess NEP 2020 outcomes in ECCE and re- creativity and critical thinking capabilities; introduction of
calibrate projects and initiatives, starting with supporting continuous formative assessment systems to replace sum-
states towards instituting a professionally trained cadre of mative exams, and promotion of new digital technologies
foundation stage teachers and increasing budgetary outlays in school education.
for ECCE,” says Dr. Venita Kaul, an alumna of Allahabad In response to these mandates of NEP 2020, in 2023

48 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2025