Page 18 - EW-June-2025

Education News

Mumbai, warns that unless the BJP- KARNATAKA compulsory ECCE for all children
Shiv Sena government intervenes, in the three-six age group, there’s
the future of Marathi-medium educa- Pre-primaries target widespread expectation of a boom in
tion in Mumbai will be permanently professionally administered ECCE.
compromised. “We need a dedicated re-primary education is the Unsurprisingly, there is a loud
education think-tank to study the de- only sector not subject to gov- and growing chorus for government
cline and recommend a revival plan. Pernment controls and regula- regulation of privately provided
Parents are not enemies of Marathi — tion. Although the country’s 1.34 mil- preschool education in Karnataka.
they just want good quality education lion pre-primary Anganwadi Centres In 2018, the state government is-
in Marathi. If government invests in (AWCs), promoted by the Central sued a circular mandating all private
infrastructure, teacher training, and government under the Integrated preschools statewide to register with
mounts a public awareness cam- Child Development Services (ICDS, the Department of School Education
paigns, there is still time to reverse 1975) to provide nutrition to new and Literacy (DSEL). But the order
this trend,” says Samant. borns and lactating mothers and also was not implemented. On May 27,
owever almost 80 years after the provide basic education, are subject DSEL has issued yet another circular
Hboundaries of India’s 29 states to funding supervision and regula- directing all “newly started” private
were redrawn on the basis of domi- tion by the Central and state gov- unaided preschools to “compulso-
nant language in 1956 by the States ernments, private preschools were rily” register with the department on
Reorganisation Commission, parents never on the radar of government its Student Achievement Tracking
from bottom-of-pyramid households, until EducationWorld convened the System (SATS) portal.
compelled to enroll children in local, country’s first international ECCE The circular defines pre-primary
free-of-charge government schools (early childhood care and education) education as non-formal education
providing Marathi medium instruc- Conference in 2010. provided to children aged three to
tion, have cottoned on that English/ Since then as awareness dawned five years before they enter class
Inglish — the language of the judi- that children’s brains are almost 80 I, and specifies conditions that
ciary, business and link language of preschools must fulfill to be
India — is the passport to upward so- eligible for registration. The
cio-economic mobility. This explains conditions include a build-
the rapid multiplication of India’s af- ing with a carpet area of one
fordable budget private schools (BPS) sq.m per student, subject
which provide — or claim to provide to a minimum 2,000 sq. ft,
— affordable Inglish medium educa- preferably on the ground
tion, to over 400,000 countrywide. floor with a playground;
Levying tuition fees of Rs.100-4,000 18x20 ft classrooms; a build-
per month, BPS — hate objects of bu- ing fitness certificate and
reaucrats and left intellectuals — have fire safety clearance in addi-
emerged as preferred alternatives of tion for “ensuring physical,
poor households at the bottom of pro- personal and sexual safety of
fessedly socialist India’s iniquitous children”. However, even as
socio-economic pyramid. Agarwal: interference apprehension registration of “newly start-
Comments Prasid Gokhale, a ed” preschools is mandatory,
Mumbai-based daily wage labourer: percent developed before age eight it’s not clear whether the conditions
“I have enrolled my son in a BPS af- and therefore formal profession- apply to existing preschools.
ter taking a high interest loan. I want ally administered ECCE is critically According to DSEL estimates,
him to learn Inglish to be able to talk important, the number of private Karnataka hosts 45,000 private pre-
to officers, which I haven’t been able preschools has exploded. A large and schools, many of whom run classes
to do.” growing number of educationists, for tiny tots in residential buildings,
It would perhaps be advisable for businessmen, edupreneurs and also basements, and unauthorised struc-
democratically elected governments international preschool chains have tures, posing significant security risk
to pay heed to the voices and aspira- promoted pre-primaries/preschools to young children. Through the reg-
tions of the poor whose children are countrywide which offer ECCE istration mandate, DSEL hopes “to
obliged to attend Marathi medium at all price points ranging from ensure safety of children, quality of
schools, instead of imposing their will Rs.30,000-300,000 per year. More- education and standards across early
upon them. over since the National Education childhood education institutions”
Megha Chowdhury (Mumbai) Policy (NEP) 2020 has mandated and collect “proper data about the

18 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2025