Abstract

With the acceptance of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and subsequent developments such as National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (Nipun Bharat) by the Government of India, the country has redefined the early years for education as covering children between 3–5-year-olds to 3-8year-olds, which is close to a widely acceptable definition of early years internationally. However, it has also opened up a massive challenge regarding both the conceptual understanding of the early year education and the systemic capacity and preparedness to deliver the early childhood education effectively and equitably. This policy brief is based on a scoping study that tries to understand these challenges from the perspective of developing an advocacy plan for incorporating a ‘breadth of skills’ (BOS) or a holistic approach for education at foundational level. The study uses mixed methods of review of literature, consultations with experts and field work. The field work component was to study 4 different models of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in the states of Rajasthan and Maharashtra, these models included Independent AWC with no intervention (to understand the operationalisation of Breadth of Skills (BoS) and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy(FLN) in the govt run ECE centres), Integrated/co-located AWC with schools (to mainly understand school readiness and continuity), NGO intervention based AWCs (to understand the delivery of FLN and BoS through this model of PPP), NGO run independent ECE centre.

CBPS. (2022). Holistic Skills for Early Childhood Education in India. Bengaluru : Save the Children India, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), Bengaluru