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continuum for all children, mandating three years of com- Foundational Stage gives the best chance for all children to
pulsory pre-primary education for children countrywide. grow into good, ethical, thoughtful, creative, empathetic,
Moreover in October 2022, the Union education min- and productive human beings,” says NCF-FS 2022 in a ring-
istry released the first-ever National Curriculum Frame- ing endorsement of universal ECCE.
work for Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022 prescribing In this year-end issue we continue our tradition of cel-
well-researched, age-appropriate curriculums, pedagogies ebrating early childhood care and education by rating and
and best practices to preschool the country’s youngest age ranking the country’s best preschools to enable parents to
group. The 360-page NCF-FS unambiguously mandates select most aptitudinally suitable pre-primaries for young-
that they learn through play and reiterates the vital im- est children. A second objective of the annual EWIPR is
portance of professionally delivered ECCE for India’s multiplication and upgradation of ECCE institutions coun-
165 million children below six years including 84 million trywide through healthy competition.
young’uns enrolled in the country’s 1.4 million govern- Therefore to compile the EW India Preschool Rank-
ment-run Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). ings 2024-25 we commissioned the Bengaluru-based AZ
“The first eight years of a child’s life are truly critical Research Partners Pvt Ltd — which also conducted the re-
and lay the foundation for lifelong well-being, and overall cord-breaking EW India School Rankings 2024-25 survey
growth and development across all dimensions — physi- published in September and October — to conduct a field
cal, cognitive, and socio-emotional. Research from neuro- survey in 19 cities (where there is sufficient awareness of the
science informs us that over 85 percent of an individual’s importance of pre-primary education) viz, Delhi, Mumbai,
brain development occurs by the age of six, indicating the Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Navi Mum-
critical importance of appropriate care and stimulation in bai, Thane, Ahmedabad, Indore, Vadodara, Jaipur, Chandi-
a child’s early years to promote sustained and healthy brain garh, Gurugram, Noida, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, and Ghazi-
development and growth… Regardless of the circumstances abad to rate and rank India’s most respected pre-primaries.
of birth or background, quality ECCE enables children to “For this year’s EWIPR we carefully selected 3,000
participate and flourish in the educational system through- sample respondents comprising 2,200 parents with at least
out their lives. ECCE is thus perhaps one of the greatest one child in preschool, and 800 teachers and educators of
and most powerful equalisers. High-quality ECCE in the preschools in 19 cities. In a departure from past practice,

DECEMBER 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 33