Context

• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 marks a paradigm shift in India's educational landscape, particularly in the domain of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).
• For decades, early education in India has been marred by disparities, primarily due to the limited reach of the public sector.
• By institutionalising ECCE within government schools, the NEP has initiated a structural transformation towards greater equity and quality in foundational learning.

The Ambitious Vision of NEP 2020: Addressing Historical Inequities

• Historically, government schools enrolled children only from Class 1, leaving children aged 3–6 in the care of Anganwadi centres, which, although critical for early nutrition and care, lacked a formal educational focus.
• In contrast, private schools long offered structured nursery education, creating a gap in preparedness and perpetuating early disadvantages for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
• The NEP seeks to bridge this gap by integrating preschool classes (Balvatika 1, 2, and 3) into government schools, a move that not only promises universalisation of ECCE by 2030 but also aims to level the playing field.

Structural Shifts in ECCE: Expansion, Migration, and Reorientation

• Expansion of ECCE Infrastructure
  • The first shift is the planned expansion of the ECCE infrastructure.
  • The stagnation of ECCE services around the 14 lakh Anganwadi centres is now giving way to a growing network of preschool classes in public schools.
  • With the Ministry of Education channelling resources through the Samagra Shiksha scheme, many States and Union Territories have begun setting up preschool classes.
  • However, utilisation is uneven, with some states lagging in initiating or fully implementing these provisions.
  • This expansion demands robust planning for recruitment, training, and deployment of skilled ECCE educators.
  • Without a competent and well-supported workforce, the expansion risks becoming a superficial change.
• Migration from Anganwadis to Schools
  • The second shift pertains to a growing preference among parents for preschool education in government schools over Anganwadis.
  • This trend, already evident in regions like Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, is largely driven by the perception that schools offer superior learning environments.
  • Consequently, 4–6-year-old children are migrating from Anganwadis to schools, threatening the relevance of Anganwadis for this age group.
  • To remain relevant, the Anganwadi system must reimagine its role within the ECCE framework.
  • Initiatives such as the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi underscore a renewed emphasis on integrating education with care and nutrition.
  • However, the real challenge lies in ground-level execution, ensuring that Anganwadi workers are not only trained but also adequately supported to deliver age-appropriate educational activities.
  • Simultaneously, schools must resist the temptation to schoolify preschool education, instead centring it around play-based, holistic learning rather than rote reading and writing.
• Reorientation Towards the 0–3 Age Group
  • Perhaps the most transformative shift is the potential reorientation of the Anganwadi system to focus on the 0–3-year age group through structured home visits.
  • Research from both Indian and global contexts, including the Perry Preschool Project and a Yale-Pratham study in Odisha, highlights the profound developmental impact of early interventions in the first three years of life.
  • Yet, implementation gaps remain, largely because Anganwadi workers are overburdened and often prioritise children who are physically present (3–6 years) over those requiring home-based care.
  • If government schools begin taking full responsibility for 3–6 year-olds, this opens up a critical opportunity for Anganwadis to refocus their mission.
  • By reallocating resources and responsibilities, Anganwadi workers could dedicate time to home-based interventions for infants and toddlers, and to supporting pregnant and lactating mothers, thereby strengthening the developmental foundations laid in the first 1,000 days of life.
  • This potential division of labor between schools and Anganwadis, though ambitious, could radically improve India’s ECCE outcomes if pursued with clarity and commitment.

Conclusion

• The NEP 2020 lays a visionary and equity-driven blueprint for transforming early childhood education in India.
• However, this transformation is far from automatic. Each structural shift, expansion, migration, and reorientation, brings its own set of challenges related to infrastructure, training, parental perceptions, and policy coherence.
• The success of this reimagined ECCE ecosystem will ultimately depend on the inter-sectoral collaboration between education, health, and nutrition departments, the empowerment of frontline workers, and responsive governance at the state and district levels.
• If implemented with thoughtfulness and equity at its core, the NEP’s ECCE reforms could not only reduce foundational disparities but also lay the groundwork for a healthier, more capable, and more just India.