Page 254 - EducationWorld November 2020

ANNIVERSARY ESSAY

Imminent disruption of

Preschool Education

RAJAT MUKHERJEE M. SRIVASTAVA

+3+3+4 WILL REPLACE 10+2. THIS ISN’T MATH The preschool education sector is on the
magic but a change in the framework of India’s
school education system mandated by the new Na- brink of extensive changes in regula-
5tional Education Policy, 2020 released on July 29. tory framework as early childhood care
Put simply, the policy proposes that the current 10+2 sys-
tem covering age group 6-18 years will be replaced with a and education is integrated with formal
5+3+3+4 structure covering the age group 3-18 years. The K-12 education
unmissable impact of this reconfiguration is that the previ-
ously unregulated preschool sector will be brought within
the ambit of government regulation and may be obliged to tional best practices.
transform into not-for-profit institutions, whereas all pri- Second, a distinct cadre of professionally qualified ECCE
vate preschools are promoted and operated as for-profit educators will have to be trained for delivery of preschool
business enterprises. education. Creation of these cadres will be entrusted to state
NEP 2020 is not explicit on whether preschools will be governments and based on specialised professional train-
obliged to function as not-for-profit enterprises. But it does ing, mentoring and continuous development.
state that a regulatory framework will be instituted for all nd third, the state-level regulatory regime will need to
stages of education, ECCE included. It states that public- Abe restructured with new and reduced functions for the
spirited private schools or private philanthropic efforts will Department of School Education (DSE), currently the apex
be encouraged. But also that “all educational institutions body for regulating K-12 education in the states. Under NEP
will be held to similar standards of audit and disclosure 2020, DSE’s role will be limited to policy formulation while
as a ‘not-for-profit’ entity”. Therefore, even though there overall monitoring will be done by a new independent state-
is no clear guidance on how or to what extent the not-for- wide body named the State School Standards Authority
profit principle will be applied to preschools, it shouldn’t (SSSA). SSSA will be responsible for standards setting and
come as a surprise if legislative or regulatory changes are oversight of all schools — including preschools — under a
made to force preschools to fall in line. If such laws/rules new model based on self-regulation and disclosure.
are legislated, they could be game-changers for the coun- To round off these changes, the policy mandates uni-
try’s estimated 60,000 private preschools. versal access to high-quality ECCE. Its solution is to ac-
A large part of the growth story of the preschool market cord special priority to districts not adequately serviced or
can be attributed to the relative ease of promoting and run- especially disadvantaged. On one hand this promises new
ning them which flows from significant regulatory freedom business opportunities. But on the other, it brings us back to
from the not-for-profit principle and less onerous infra- the possibility of increased government regulation of ECCE.
structure requirements, especially when contrasted with Currently, the Right to Education Act, 2009 mandates
the K-12 segment. However, Delhi and Karnataka have laws free and compulsory education to children in the 6-14 age
that treat preschools on a par with K-12 schools even though group. The exception to this rule are K-12 schools which
this reality is divorced from legal requirements. Other states also run pre-primary classes. In their case the RTE Act be-
like Maharashtra have attempted regulation in the past by comes applicable from the pre-primary stage. However, the
proposing legislative changes, and more recently by adopt- vast majority of preschools today operate on a stand-alone
ing an ECCE policy. Therefore to state that preschools are basis (i.e, not part of K-12 schools) and therefore don’t fall
not regulated at all, is incorrect. Besides, efforts at regu- within this RTE construct. Assuming this requirement is
lating them have been ongoing in several states and NEP extended to preschools, it may lead to insistence on not-
2020, in several ways, picks up these threads. for-profit status similar to K-12 schools.
Likewise, some ground work has already been done in In short, the preschool education sector is on the brink of
terms of regulating preschools. For instance, the recom- extensive changes in regulatory framework as ECCE is inte-
mendatory Guidelines for Private Play Schools prepared grated with formal, regulated K-12 education. Until legisla-
by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. tive changes on the lines discussed above are enacted, it’s a
These guidelines are a summation of previous regulatory wait and watch period for preschool managements. In the
efforts. Moreover, three other key proposals of NEP 2020 circumstances, taking cognisance of these imminent devel-
will have a far-reaching impact on this segment. opments, an advisable first step is to be prepared for change
First, there has to be a complete revamp of preschool of status. In the final analysis it’s not the strongest that will
curriculums after the National Curricular and Pedagogical survive, but those who are most adaptable to change.
Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education man-
dated by NEP 2020, is developed by NCERT based on the (Rajat Mukherjee and Monika Srivastava are partners at Khaitan & Co, LLP.
prime objectives of NEP 2020 and national and interna- Views are personal)

254 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2020