Page 53 - EducationWorld Aug 2020 Flipbuilder

new policy accords high importance
to foundational literacy and numeracy
(FLN). This mission is a belated but
nevertheless welcome response to the
Annual Status of Education Report
(ASER) of the Pratham Education
Foundation, one of the world’s most
respected education NGOs. For the
past 15 years, over 20,000 Pratham
volunteers — mainly college and uni-
versity students — have been field
testing primary school children in ru-
ral India to assess their reading and
numeracy skills.
T HE ASER SURVEYS have

been warning that year af-
ter year the foundational
literacy — reading and
numeracy — skills of rural primary Swati Popat Vats: game-changer strong foundation mandate
school children in over 500 of India’s
730 districts have been declining, by Los Angeles-based educationist- Childhood Association (estb.2011)
especially in government schools. philanthropist Lowell Milken, who which has emerged as a powerful and
“Various governmental as well as in the early years of the new millen- influential voice for universal ECCE.
non-governmental surveys indicate nium owned KinderCare — the larg- Indeed to its credit, the Kasturiran-
that we are currently in a learning est chain of private pre-primaries in gan Committee had gone one better by
crisis: a large proportion of children the USA — since 2010, this publica- recommending seamless extension of
in elementary school — estimated to tion has convened ten international early childhood into the first three
be over 5 crore (50 million) in num- conferences (latterly converted into years of primary school under its rev-
ber have not attained foundational lit- national conferences) in Mumbai and olutionary 5+3+3+4 schooling years
eracy and numeracy, i.e, the ability to Bangalore, to generate greater aware- system which has been incorporated
read and comprehend basic text and ness of the basic principles and best in toto into the new education policy.
carry out basic addition and subtrac- practices of ECCE. “NEP’s acknowledgement of the
tion with Indian numerals,” admits This was necessary because until critical importance of ECCE and ex-
NEP 2020 (para 2.1). Therefore, the then, early childhood education was tension of its duration to class III
policy document has decreed that widely synonymous with unstructured during which all children will joyfully
the Union HRD ministry establishes play and baby-sitting. Therefore, the acquire foundational literacy and nu-
a National Mission on Foundational prime importance accorded in NEP meracy — if implemented diligently in
Literacy and Numeracy “on a prior- 2020 to early childhood care and edu- the country’s 1.4 million anganwadis
ity”. “Accordingly, all state/Union ter- cation is the culmination of a long and and primary schools — could prove to
ritory governments will immediately consistent campaign for professional- be a game-changer in Indian educa-
prepare an implementation plan for ly administered ECCE for India’s 164 tion. It will build a strong foundation
attaining universal foundational lit- million children below five years age, for all future learning. We are jubilant
eracy and numeracy in all primary conducted by EducationWorld. that our long-time advocacy of univer-
schools identifying stage-wise targets This sustained campaign included sal professionally-provided ECCE has
and goals to be achieved by 2025 and strong support by this publication to paid off. But simultaneously we have
loosely tracking and monitoring prog- the country’s estimated 55,000 private directed all our regional offices to en-
ress of the same (sic),” says NEP 2020 preschools and 1.4 million anganwa- sure that state governments imple-
(para 2.2). dis — essentially nutrition centres ment the ECCE reforms proposed in
These two initiatives are music for new borns and lactating mothers, NEP 2020, in all anganwadis, pre and
to the ears of your editors in Educa- promoted by the Central government primary schools countrywide,” says
tionWorld. Awakened to the critical under its Integrated Child Develop- Dr. Swati Popat Vats, president of
importance of ECCE for children’s ment Services (ICDS) programme Podar Jumbo Kids, a 498-strong chain
orderly development and smooth in- introduced in 1976. And continuous of preschools and founding president
duction into the education continuum support for the Mumbai-based Early of the Early Childhood Association of

AUGUST 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 53