Page 40 - EW December 2023

Expert Comment

Challenge & response in

early years education

KRITIKA BALDI SWATI POPAT VATS

HE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY (NEP) 2020 This essay highlights challenges
and National Curriculum Framework for Founda-
tional Stage (NCF-FS) 2022 propose radical chang- confronting ECCE in government and
Tes in teaching-learning during the early years. This private pre-primaries and recommends
is a welcome initiative to prepare the next generation for
the current and future global environment, as the positive how to achieve quality standardisation
impact of early childhood care and education (ECCE) on and child-centric education
economic growth is now well-documented.
In India, ECCE is dispensed through government-man-
aged anganwadis and independent private preschools. ily inclined towards academics and in fact, demand regular
Data from the Union ministry of education indicates homework, including content memorisation and writing ca-
there are 1.3 million anganwadis countrywide that serve pabilities. This hampers the efforts of progressive, aware
an aggregate 80 million pre-primary aged children while managements to introduce play-based pedagogies.
300,000 private preschools educate 9 million children. Recommendations for child-centric education.
Government anganwadis are essentially nutrition centres Against the backdrop of these challenges, there is urgent
for infants and lactating mothers and provide minimal low- need to standardise and rationalise guidelines that allow in-
grade early childhood education. Therefore, private pre- dividuals to qualify as ECCE educators. Without strict regu-
schools are destined to play an increasingly important role, lations to prevent the infiltration of unqualified individuals
especially with the conterminous expansion of the middle- into this sector, lay persons with time, space and resources
class population that can afford private education. This es- are free to establish private preschools and determine their
say attempts to highlight the major challenges confronting own curriculums. The Central government should mandate
ECCE in government and private pre-primaries and makes specialist ECCE trainers for early childhood educators.
recommendations for achieving quality standardisation and he establishment of a greater number of ECCE teacher
child-centric education. Ttraining institutes is a pressing necessity. Currently,
Fundamental challenges of early childhood educa- only 140 institutes offer programmes to prepare early years
tion. There are no centralised guidelines for the training educators, and these organisations are disproportionately
or recruitment of early years’ teachers. Less than 3 percent strewn across the country. The next complication is within
of pre-primary teachers are qualified with the Bachelor’s in the structure and organisation of teacher training institutes.
Elementary Education (B. El. Ed) degree. Moreover, most Low enrolments in these organisations, combined with the
early years teachers receive little social respect in their pro- low fees cap of Rs.20,000-50,000 per year has ensured that
fession and tend to use this low-paying job to fill up their teacher training institutes are ill-equipped to provide the
time, rather than to fulfill their passion for teaching. This infrastructure and human resources required to train teach-
demotivation is evident in the quality of teaching which is ers adequately.
largely textbook-based with heavy focus on adult-led in- The quality of teaching is dependent not merely on the
struction and rote memorisation. academic proficiency of teachers, but also their ability to
Government expenditure on training elementary school implement acquired knowledge. To ensure this, school
teachers in 2018-19 was only 0.15 percent of the national managements must allow teachers sufficient autonomy to
education outlay (Centre plus states), which is well below practice innovations and encourage the culture of learning
of other countries. In the absence of standardised training through mistakes. Implementation of NEP 2020 will be a
norms, private preschools have developed their own teacher challenge unless the attitude of all stakeholders shifts to-
development programmes which tend to focus on skills and wards truly embracing child-centric teaching and learning.
proficiencies that school managements deem appropriate. In these circumstances, we propose that all private pre-
Consequently, there is a high degree of variability in the schools should be affiliated with a central board to ensure
manner and extent to which teachers absorb training and minimum quality education. The list of accredited schools
manage children in the early years. should be made publicly available on an online platform
Furthermore, there is a severe disconnect between for parents to make informed decisions when choosing
teacher trainers and teachers managing pre-primary chil- preschools for their children. The online platform should
dren in classrooms. The reality is that most trainers have provide unbiased details relating to curriculum, teachers’
not been teachers themselves and therefore, cannot relate training and competence as well as infrastructure facilities.
to real-world classroom problems.
Widespread parental ignorance about the purpose and (Kritika Baldi is a Mumbai-based freelance consultant and researcher of
utility of professionally delivered ECCE adds to the chal- early years education in private unaided schools & Dr. Swati Popat Vats is
lenges. Most parents of pre-primary age children are heav- President of the Early Childhood Association of India)

40 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2023