RETHINKING EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION IN INDIA

Abstract

Brain development in the initial years of a child is more crucial, and the impact of early learning is long-lasting. Students, who attend quality preschool, perform better than their counterparts. Pre-school education can be most important for developing a solid base in education on which all the future learning is expected to depend. However, until now, there is no legal provision in India for making preschools mandatory for all. The RTE 2009 was delinked from preschooling by creating an age limit of 6-14 years. The latest National Education Policy 2020 is taking more interest in the early years. This prompted the research to examine the current status of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in India and the opinions of different policy documents about it; further, a sample of ECCE activities are given for understanding the importance of ECCE and the challenges in the absence of ECCE. On the one hand, this program makes students ready for school, and on the other hand, it helps improve the learning and understanding of kids. Some suggestions are highlighted to ensure the proper upkeep and development of the programme. The main recommendations include making provisions in the law for teacher training regulation and standards, making a play-based, interactive, meaningful, multi-disciplinary, problem-solving, art-integrated and flexible curriculum, including ECCE under the preview of RTE 2009 etc.