If the draft National Educational Policy (NEP), which is in the public domain and being currently debated, is taken up for implementation, children all over the country will soon enter the formal educational system at the early age of three years instead of the five years at present.
Though the government envisages the age of the child to be five to enter the primary school, parents do generally feel that the child should be put to school much before, so as to inculcate the needed ‘School Habit’ right from age two-three years. It is also felt that the child should be exposed to the rudiments of social behaviour by introducing the kid to other toddlers from a young age.
This urge to put the child to school habit in healthy and safe surroundings in the care of trained/responsible personnel has virtually given rise to the pre-school nurseries, which have proliferated everywhere throughout the country.
Policy Vacuum
As the government hitherto had no specific policy on the pre-school system, this vacuum was ably exploited by private as well as corporate bodies to establish individual as well as chains of branded pre-schools to provide the desired preparatory schooling to children in the age group of two to five years. These private or corporate pre-schools make good money.
While there were rules and regulations with regard to the fee, curriculum, qualifications of teachers, their salaries and training et al for government schools, there is blissfully no such governmental control whatsoever on the private pre-schools. A number of franchised pre-schools, many from branded names, have sprung up with eye-catching signboards in recent decades. It has become a status symbol to send children to these expensive private pre-schools, not only in cities, but even in towns, urban centres and rural areas.
The present draft policy on the pre-school curriculum seems to have taken into consideration the perils of these pre-schools and the cartels that run them by fleecing the gullible parents. The draft indicates that early childhood education is to be overseen and regulated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) as a part of its school system rather than leaving it to the whimsical care of private managements.
Lagging Anganwadis
There are, in rural areas, the very innovative Anganwadis under the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) which are supposed to take care of children in the age group of two-five years. These Anganwadis are meant to provide daycare for the children along with nutritious breakfast besides ‘introducing them to the school habit’.
But the real working of the Anganwadis and the standards of their maintenance is anybody’s guess. Precisely, this has been the reason for the unabated thriving of the private pre-schools. The draft also indicates that there will be a ministerial task force to work out a roadmap for coordination between the HRD and WCD ministries as both are involved in the functioning of the preschools.
If the formal education for the child starts at the age of three, as the present draft envisages, then naturally the government will have to incur additional costs in the form of teacher recruitment and training, buildings and infrastructure, teaching/learning materials and a host of things specific to the needs of the children in that age group. Besides, children also need to be provided with mid-day meal as is now generally done by the Anganwadis. Additionally, medical facilities are also to be made available as children of that age group are prone to sudden and unforeseen exigencies in matters of health. All these do involve considerable expenditure and require meticulous planning.
Significant Feature
Interestingly, the draft policy also suggests a new integrated curriculum framework for three to eight-year-olds with a flexible system based on informal play-linked activity and learning. It also suggests exposure to the three language policy, right from the age of three. But it may be too ambitious for the toddlers to learn three languages in one go.
What is quite significant in the draft policy and which should be welcomed with no qualms, is the recommendation that all aspects of early childhood education should be under the purview of the HDR Ministry — which in other words is the nationalisation of the pre-school system and thus freeing parents from the scourge of exorbitant fees that the present private pre-schools collect.
As the pre-school education of the children in the age group of three-plus is a concern of Ministries of Health, HRD and WCD, there should be effective coordination of all these ministries to bring out a viable operational roadmap to integrate early childhood education with a regular pre-school educational system, which sadly is overlooked now.
(The author is a retired Professor of History, University of Hyderabad)
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