Preparing Kids for Preschools
Decoding the Muddle of Early Childhood Education In India
The earliest years of one’s life are most critical. They lay the foundations for learning and a holistic development; children develop cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills in these years. Early Childhood Education, thus, becomes significant in the lives not just of the children, but also their families and society. Across India, especially in urban areas, parents have increasingly been seeking institutional knowledge and services for their young children. As a result, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of preschools, preparatory schools, crèches, balwadi kendras (government and non-government), day care centres and early learning centres, and early diagnosis and special education centres. However, there is little understanding of the nature of services available or the nature of preparation of personnel who work in such programs.
The National Policy on Education (1986) established the significance of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as a first step in the educational journey of students. It recognised it as a field that requires extensive coverage, increased funding and the development of a perspective that believes in the holistic development of young children. It clearly directed that learning should be joyful and “there shall be no formal teaching of the 3Rs at this stage.” Although progress since that year has been slow in terms of programs and outreach, each subsequent Five Year Plan articulated the need to prioritise education and development of children below 6 years of age.
The National Curriculum Framework (2005) and the National Curricular Framework for Teacher Education (2009) included new guidelines for curricular practices in preschool and teacher education in ECCE. Both documents established the need to examine and prepare an understanding of the needs of young children in our society at the emotional, social and cognitive levels.
However, these documents also point out to another aspect- the want of teacher education at these levels. NCF 2005 states that- though the professional preparation of teachers has been recognised to be critical for the qualitative improvement of education since 1960s, the ground reality remains a matter of great concern… Existing teacher education programs neither accommodate the emerging ideas in content and pedagogy nor address the issue of linkages between school and society.
NCFTE 2009 views “the need to evolve teacher education programmes specifically meant for preparing teachers for early childhood education” as an important change facilitation step for development of the field of ECCE.
Even the Justice Verma Commission Report (2012) states, “the approach to the education of Indian school teachers has remained unchanged for over half a century in two crucial aspects: the institutionalised intellectual isolation of the school teacher and a circumscribed engagement with pedagogy as mere a technique.”
Thus, the policy planners and the committees know that problems exist. They even know that these problems need to be worked out soon, and have suggested ways. But for reasons unknown, these suggestions have not been implemented as they should have. Amongst the multiple areas of concern, significant is the overabundance and overlapping involvement of different government ministries and departments. In this article, I write down the government provisions and regulations, and try to make a little sense of the muddle.
One of the biggest obstacles in the functioning of preschools comes from the fact that while education as a subject comes under the Ministry of Human Resource Department , ECCE (although included in education) comes under the Ministry of Women and Child Development since 2006. This causes numerous communication gaps and indecision at the policy implementation level.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2010 guarantees children their right to quality elementary education. RTE urges states to provide free preschool education for children above three years. Plus, the 12th Five Year Plan acknowledges the importance of Early Childhood Education and improving school preparedness. But, the RTE Act does not recognise Early Childhood Education as a compulsory provision.
Initially the Act did not mention of early childhood education. After civil society protests though, Article 45 of the Constitution was amended to direct that “the State shall endeavour to provide ECCE for all children until they complete the age of six years.”
In conformity, Section 11 of the RTE Act now states: With a view to prepare children above the age of three years for elementary education and to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years, the appropriate government may make necessary arrangements for providing free preschool education for such children.
Although this is an enabling provision, it does not make preschool education a fundamental right of every child. A big corollary of this exclusion is that ECCE does not get funds allocated at the same level as other programs in the education sector.
The implementation of the Commissions and Reports has been haphazard, to put mildly. For instance, although the National Policy (1986) clearly specifies the age range for ECCE as 0–6 years, there is still a fair amount of ambiguity about the age at which children are eligible for preschool education. Documents of government and private institutions often interchangeably refer to the early childhood age as either between 3 and 6 or 4 and 6 years of age. In most states, the eligibility age for entry to primary school in Grade 1 is 5 years. Paradoxically, the Integrated Child Development Service Scheme (a government program) caters officially to children up to 6 years of age. The programs of teacher education in ECCE initiated by the National Council of Teacher Education (a government body, again) refers to the age group of 4–8 years with “the rationale that the methodology of the preschool stage needs to be extended to the lower primary stage, i.e. grades I and II of the primary stage”.
The teaching of ECCE continues to be a part of the mandate for National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE)- a statutory body to regulate standards in teacher education. NCTE has the responsibility to accord official recognition, and regulate and maintain standards in teacher education across all stages of school education, including preschool education. This is paradoxical given that ECCE is neither considered under MHRD nor included in the RTE Act.
Further, while the NCTE can set the standards of teaching, it does not have authority to enforce them. Thus, the Diploma in Preschool Education, the government mandated course for those willing to teach at the preschool level, has a lot of variations. There are different structures in terms of duration, contents and emphasis. Different institutions even have different names for the courses offered by them, like Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Care and Education, Nursery Teacher Education, Pre-primary Teacher Education, Preschool Education and Phonics Teacher Training.
Understandably, a drastic change is required in teacher education. When I started studying the area, I realised that factors like corruption and incompetence were not the cause of the mess here. There are multiple aspects of why this sector was doing so badly.
