Page 42 - EducationWorld Feb 2021 Low

Cover Story

sure that all students entering Grade ECCE expenditure per child
I are schools ready,” says NEP 2020 US$ PPP
(para 1.1) accepting this recommenda-
tion of the KR Committee in toto. The 16000
new policy mandates that the 10+2 14000
school system which took no cogni- 12000
tion of ECCE, should be reconfigured
into a 5+3+3+4 preschool to class XII 10000
system integrating ECCE to provide 8000
children a strong foundation for deriv- 6000
ing the full benefits of secondary and 4000
tertiary education. 2000
B tional Council of Educa- 0 Norway Sweden Iceland Finland Australia OECD average Australia UK US India
UT EVEN AS NCERT (Na-
($272)
tional Research & Train-
ing) and NCTE (National Source: http://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm
Council for Teacher Education) were
working on developing curriculum aggregate enrolment of 150 students,
frameworks by early 2021, the Coro- notwithstanding the high importance
navirus which originated in Wuhan accorded to early childhood educa-
(China) last November, transformed tion in NEP 2020, the BJP-led state
into a virulent pandemic. On March government has totally ignored the
25, the Union government ordered the predicament of the state’s estimated
closure of all education institutions 25,000 recognised and unrecognised
countrywide including 55,000 pri- preschools including 62,580 AWCs.
vate preschools and 1.3 million AWCs “The Central government has not
(anganwadi centres). And given that classified preschools as MSMEs (mi-
ECCE is essentially group play-driven cro, small and medium enterprises)
and youngest children cannot — and entitled to special credit and soft
should not — be given access to digi- loans from public sector banks. And
tal devices for online learning, early with bank loans moratorium period
childhood education has been espe- decreed by the Central government
cially hard hit. having elapsed, a large number of
“The continued shutdown of edu- Banwasi: malnutrition pandemic warning preschool promoters who have had to
cation institutions across the country continue paying EMIs and rent, have
has had a devastating impact on pre- by children from low-income house- pledged their assets including gold
primary education in Karnataka with holds mainly because they provide a and jewellery to fund their schools.
over 1,500 preschools statewide hav- free mid-day meal, the lockdown of Curiously, the state government has
ing closed down completely and their AWCs has created a huge malnutri- allowed pubs and malls to function,
owners experiencing great difficulty tion problem in poor households and but not preschools and primaries. This
in selling their furniture and learn- thousands of very young children is a grave injustice. It should immedi-
ing material. Closed pre-primaries have been pushed into the informal ately permit preschools to start short-
include 50-100 schools franchised by workforce,” says Pruthvi Banwa- duration physical attendance classes
small companies with limited capa- si, a child mental health graduate of — as online learning is not suitable for
bility to support franchisees during Kuvempu University and certified youngest children — subject to paren-
this troubled period. Unfortunately, Montessori teacher, and currently tal consent. The employment of thou-
the state government has made a bad secretary of the Karnataka Council sands of pre-primary teachers and ir-
situation worse by restricting online of Preschools (estb.2014), which has reparable loss of learning of youngest
teacher-pupil interaction to a mere a membership of 2,500 private pro- children is at stake,” warns Banwasi.
30 minutes per day and advising par- prietorial and franchised preschools Although the political class of
ents not to pay children’s fees. Private across the state. the country has a notorious record
preschools apart, all AWCs have also According to Banwasi, also a trust- of trivialising education, commit-
remained shuttered for over nine ee of the Roots chain of five owned ted educationists warn against tak-
months. Since AWCs are attended and franchised preschools with an ing the massive blow inflicted by the

42 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2021