Page 44 - March EW PDF 24

Cover Story

cess led by a committee chaired by Dr.
Kasturirangan. The government needs
to be credited for incorporating most
of the committee’s suggestions in the
final NEP 2020. Subsequently, once
NEP 2020 was approved the govern-
ment has quickly acted to implement
some of the provisions such as devel-
oping the curriculum frameworks. For
the first time, NCF-FS which accords
high importance to early childhood
education was quickly followed by
NCF-SE last year. However, while it
gets full marks for efficient and de-
tailed education policy formulation,
the government hasn’t increased
the budgetary allocation required
to implement NEP 2020. Nor has it
fast-tracked the regulatory reforms Out of school children: foundational stage education made compulsory
needed, particularly to confer greater
autonomy to private and public higher for it to be implemented immediately” Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022.
education institutions. I hope the next with provision for “appropriate fund- Child development professionals and
government at the Centre ensures that ing”. educationists welcomed the 360-page
education gets the appropriate fund- Its successor, the KR Committee’s NCF-FS 2022 for unambiguously pre-
ing needed to implement NEP 2020, NEP Report went one better. It not scribing play-based learning through
and the implementation is done in its only acknowledged the vital impor- conversation, stories, toys, music, art
true spirit,” says Prof. Rishikesh. tance of foundational professionally and crafts and prohibiting textbooks
In the next few pages, we assess administered ECCE for India’s young- for children below age six.
the track record of the Modi govern- est children, but recommended recon- Earlier on March 8, the BJP gov-
ment over the past decade in early figuration of the centuries-old 10+2 ernment launched the Saksham An-
childhood, school, higher and skills primary-secondary schooling system ganwadi and Poshan 2.0 Abhiyaan
education. into a new 5+3+3+4 continuum for- — integrated nutrition support pro-
mally integrating ECCE into elemen- grammes — for implementation from
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND tary education. 2021-22 to 2025-26. Under the pro-
EDUCATION Achievements (2014-24). The fi- gramme, nutrition support is provided
F OR THE HIGH PRIORITY ac- mittee’s ECCE recommendations in years, pregnant women and lactating
nal NEP 2020 accepted the KR com-
for children aged six months to six
corded to early childhood
toto. Under NEP 2020, all children
mothers, and ECCE to children in the
care and education (ECCE),
education — three years of play-based
grade 200,000 (of the 1.39 million)
EducationWorld can claim are entitled to ‘foundational stage’ three-six age group. A target to up-
substantial credit. Since 2010, Educa- preschool education followed by two anganwadis — Central government
tionWorld (estb.1999) has convened years of preparatory classes until promoted centres for lactating moth-
11 annual national ECCE conferences age eight. By incorporation of formal ers and new borns which also provide
and initiated the unprecedented annu- ECCE into the learning continuum, ECCE — has also been set.
al EW India Preschool Rankings, forc- three years of early years education Another promising ECCE initia-
ing ECCE on to the national develop- has been added to the 10+2 system, a tive of the Modi government is the
ment agenda. In its draft NEP report, long overdue reform. Moreover, NEP National Initiative for Proficiency
the T.S.R. Subramanian Committee 2020 directed the National Council in Reading with Understanding and
for the first time publicly acknowl- of Educational Research & Training Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission
edged that “pre-primary education (NCERT), Delhi to urgently draw up which has set a target for all children
has been a neglected area in the edu- a national curricular and pedagogical in the three-eight years age group at-
cation sector”. It recommended that framework for ECCE. taining foundational reading and nu-
“pre-school education for children Consequently on October 20, meracy skills by 2026-27.
in the 4-5 years age group should be 2022, NCERT released the first-ever Failures (2014-24). The NEP
declared as a right and a programme National Curriculum Framework for 2020 commitment to universal ECCE

44 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2024