Facing the worst impact of COVID-19, ECCE can be strengthened with quick implementation of NEP goals

By Dr. Reeta Sonawat

The new National Education Policy (NEP) honors the much-needed commitment for strengthening Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to leave a serious impact on early education.

UNESCO recognizes the ECCE sector as one of the most vulnerable sectors and prone to have a bigger impact on the pandemic.  In India, the pandemic has caused learning disruptions for 472 million school-going children, and 40 million among them belong to extremely poor families. 

The extended period of the lockdown has led to shutdowns of the Anganwadis, the government-run pres-schools, which provide basic education, healthcare, and nutritional services to young children below the age of 6 years. With the parents not able to provide technology devices such as smartphones or television for education continuation of their children, there is a risk that their learning gaps will widen by the time the lockdown ends. The decrease in household income due to COVID-19 is also likely to have a direct impact on students’ enrolment.

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Amidst these concerns due to the pandemic, the new NEP has proposed bringing ECCE into the fold of formal education by replacing the existing 10+2 system with a 5+3+3+4 system, which brings the children from ages 3-6 years under the school curriculum.

Implementation of the NEP proposals at a quicker pace is recommended for mitigating the impending risks to ECCE due to the COVID-19 pandemic and also strengthening the quality of ECCE available to every child below the age of 6 years.

A step in the right direction

The NEP envisages achieving the goal of Universal provisioning of quality early childhood development, care, and education by 2030 to ensure that all students entering Grade 1 are school ready.

Early education is pivotal for improving equitable education and lifelong learning opportunities for children, especially for marginalized and disadvantaged groups.

Since over 85% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs prior to this age, quality of ECCE is important for healthy development and growth of children as well as establishing a strong foundation of learning.      

Seamless implementation of various NEP goals by the Centre in close coordination with the State governments will improve the quality of ECCE and make it available to crores of children, who are currently out of its ambit.

Defining spending on ECCE

The proposal to increase government spending on education to 6% of GDP is a welcome move but it isn’t very clear how much the spending would be on ECCE.

This component needs to be identified too as improving the standards of ECCE would need massive investments, and public funding might just not be enough to implement and sustain the ECCE goals.

Following a hybrid model of public-private partnerships (PPP) to set up the required infrastructure, continuous training of the Anganwadi and ECE teachers and create the technology framework and digital content, etc. will ensure deadlines are met through steady flow of private capital.

Integration of isolated pre-schools with K12

Pre-schools which are attached to K12 schools will be able to ensure seamless transition of students from pre-primary to primary and secondary levels. However, the biggest challenge will be for integrating the isolated pre-schools which have mushroomed all over the country with the formal K12 school system.

There needs to be a framework and specific guidelines for states to follow about integration of preschools and ECCE centres, including the Anganwadi centres, with the school system.

Guidelines for states’ on curriculum

The proposal on NCERT creating a national curriculum framework -- under the aegis of National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECC) -- for ECCE will enable upward movement of all preschools.  However, confusions and complexity It is, thus, imperative that a common set of guidelines and goals be drafted for all states so that they do not deviate from the basic goals and the ‘essentials’ of the NCERT curriculum to standardise learning.

Qualification of teachers for ECCE 

The NEP specifies that a common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations from across levels and regions.  It also says that by 2030, the minimum qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree.

However, there is still no specified guideline on minimum education or a common course to be taken up by ECCE teachers. The policy only talks about ECCE training of Anganwadi workers/teachers mentored by the Cluster Resource Centres of the School Education Department. A minimum qualification and ECE training needs to be made compulsory to uphold the quality of ECCE.

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

Yet another welcome initiative is the proposal to establish a ‘National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy’ to achieve the goal of universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary schools by 2025.

While preparing the implementation plan, the states should include first and second languages in foundational literacy. Teaching in mother tongue alone will be difficult to implement in cities which have a cosmopolitan setting. Hence, following two-language in foundational literacy will enable young children to better grasp the concepts.  Also, states need to ensure that only the curriculum and textbooks designed by National Mission is followed, which will bring uniformity and standardisation in education quality in every preschool 

Conclusion

Overall, the new education policy is a great vision to change the educational landscape with greater focus on ECCE at a time when early education is at the highest risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Implementing the NEP proposals at the earliest is now the need of the hour to revitalise education by ensuring that ECCE becomes the starting point of education for all children.

(Dr. Sonawat is the Director, Academic & Training, Ampersand Group and Contributor, National Education Policy Draft 2019, ECCE; Former Dean, Professor and Head Department of Human Development, SNDT Women’s University)

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