Early Childhood Education: Necessary Revamp

          As Stacia Tauscher says”We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” Early childhood education is one such field for which we have not given proper importance. Early Childhood Education (ECE)  is the key source of education that allows for the development of children’s cognitive and learning abilities. According to the neuroscience research, 90% of brain development in children occurs before their 6 years of growth. So it becomes necessary to provide them with sound and good quality early education that might make their development progressive and wholesome.

          ECE in India has become accessible to majority of the children in the country yet it still remains in poor form in terms of it quality and impact. According to the Indian Early Childhood Education Impact study, majority of children who have access to these early education are either in Government Anganwadi schools or in the private preschools. The Indian government has missed its opportunity in this field as it has not given proper care and adherence to this early childhood education.

        Firstly, the Anganwadi centers mainly focuses on the nutrition part of the children rather than on the early education part and the private preschools are mostly focusing on the primary school methods of teaching rather than on preschool methods. Secondly, the children who attend these schools are not uniform in their ages as many five year old children are studying with 3 year old children. This makes it difficult to provide attention on the age specific parameters. Thirdly, the Right to Education Act 2009 focuses only the primary education of children from 6 years to 14 years and neglects its precursor part i.e., early childhood education. Finally, the National Early Childhood and Education policy 2013 is not yet been reviewed as it requires more update in the policy.

Way Forward

       The government needs to formulate a comprehensive policy which addresses the issues of early childhood education. It must make the early childhood education of the children a fundamental right as it is now only a fundamental duty of the parents to provide early childhood education for their children which should have been the fundamental right of the children. The government needs to regulate the Anganwadi schools and private preschools with the proper regulation and guidelines so that the quality of the education is not compromised. The government must focus not only on accessibility of early education but also on the quality of this education which is the major precursor for the development of the children as proper adult and good citizen. The curriculum framework of the early education needs to be reviewed  after every 5 years to incorporate the changes that have taken place in the society so that it becomes easy for the children to adapt to the society and become more responsible. These steps will be a push in the country’s move towards the sustainable development goal 4 of achieving quality education for all by 2030.