Anganwadis should provide early top childhood care and education

Admittedly, with its overriding focus on health and nutrition, ECC E has hitherto been the weakest link of the child care center system. Multiple administrative duties have left child care center workers with little time for ECC E. The existing system at best serves the age group of 3-6 years, ignoring infants and toddlers. Nevertheless, a child’s early learning begins at birth, initially through stimulation, play, interactions, non-verbal and verbal communication, and gradually through observation and cues from the immediate environment and increasingly structured activities. Unfortunately, due to a lack of parental awareness compounded by the daily stresses of poverty, disadvantaged households are unable to provide an early learning environment. Many low-income families have begun to send their children to low-cost pre-schools. However, these mostly have a developmentally inappropriate teaching approach. Some educationists have suggested that owing to the high workload of child care  center  workers, ECC E in child care center would remain a non-starter — and, therefore, all government primary schools should open pre-primary sections, with  child care center limiting themselves to the 0-3 age group. This proposal has multiple logistical challenges and is fiscally unsustainable. It would require a massive outlay to build over a million classrooms with a million nursery teachers and helpers — even a conservative estimate would put the additional annual outlay at over Rs 30,000 crore. Moreover, with child stunting levels at 35 per cent in India, would children enrolled in pre-schools not require supplementary nutrition and health monitoring? If so, would the nursery teacher not also get overburdened? More critically, experience suggests that existing government pre-schools are mostly a downward extension of primary school, and do not impart age-appropriate ECC E. A meaningful ECC E program in a child care center is not only a more intelligent and cost-effective strategy but is also feasible to implement through seven concerted actions. First, to design and put in place a meaningful activity-based ECC E framework that recognizes the ground realities with autonomy to reflect the local context and setting. Sixth, ICD S must supply age-appropriate activity-based play material in adequate quantities regularly, and child care center workers encouraged to utilize them in a liberal manner. Finally, states should invest in research and training to support early childhood education, and ensure that the ECC E program is not a downward extension of school education.

 This column first appeared in the print edition on January 29- 2022 under the title ‘The youngest learners’. Sanjay is an ex-IAS officer and former secretary, school education, Karnataka. IS a UMA  IAS officer and former principal secretary, women and child development, Karnataka