It’s
a proud moment for our country that after 34 years, our new National Education
Policy is released today. We may dissect it all we want, but lets start by
congratulating the government and the committee that worked hard on ensuring
that vision of millions of Indian educators and policy makers is developed for
the larger enhancement of education of our country. Also an important move is
to rename Ministry of HRD to Ministry of Education (MoE) The new policy is an integrated
yet flexible approach to education but the ‘devil’ will of course be in the
details!
“The
National Education Policy 2019 envisions an India centred education system that contributes directly to
transforming our nation sustainably into
an equitable and vibrant knowledge society, by providing
high quality education to all.”
1.
Most importantly, the Commitment of ECCE to
children from age 3 onwards has been honoured in the new education policy.
2.
ECE for all by 2030, this is worth applauding
and achievable only with cooperation of all state governments.
3.
A national curriculum framework for ECCE is
laudable, but the devil here will be how much say each state will have in this
as it is imperative that a common guideline and goal should be drafted and
state governments should not have the power to deviate from these essentials.
As it is not fair for young children in different states to get a differing
head start in life.
4.
A preparatory class called ‘Balvatika’ in
Anganwadis for 4 to 5 year old children? Preparatory for what? Will they not
follow the foundational age group of 3 to 8 years?
5.
A welcome initiative is the National foundation
of Literacy and Numeracy Mission- hope that literacy would include first and
second languages. And an earnest hope that numeracy designed by the foundation
should be found in the curriculum and text books used by schools
6.
The Policy takes cognizance of the differences
in the development of cognitive abilities in children. The flexibility in the
first five years will enable equalising of the multiple cognitive abilities of
children.
7.
4 year integrated B.Ed. degree by 2030, what
about ECE? Still no guidelines or a common course for ECE teachers!
8. A common National Professional Standards for
Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher
Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert
organizations from across levels and regions. Will this include ECE teacher courses?
9.
6% GDP on education is a welcome move, how much
on ECE? This needs to be identified too.
10.
Parakh the National assessment centre, we
sincerely hope that they also define assessment for early years so that
developmental delays and learning lags can be identified and rectified early
on.
11.
It takes a village to raise a child, and the
village identified in this policy for ECE is jointly the Ministries of HRD, Women and Child Development (WCD), Health
and Family Welfare (HFW), and Tribal Affairs. How this village works together
will decide the success of ECE in this country.
12.
NCERT will
develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood
Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8. A welcome
move, ECA is hopeful that states will ensure the implementation of the same and
thus remove the traditional, formal, stressful curriculums being followed by
many preschools. The policy advocates that children of ages 3-8 have access
to a flexible, multifaceted, multilevel, play-based, activity-based, and
discovery-based education. How this will be implemented and assured is going to
be work in progress.
13. ECCE will be delivered through a significantly
expanded and strengthened system of institutions including Anganwadis and pre-
schools that will have teachers and Anganwadi workers trained in the ECCE
pedagogy and curriculum – the question is what will this training comprise of?
This needs to be identified at the earliest else different states will have
different standards and quality of ECE teachers.
14.
Mother
tongue is a good move but difficult to implement. In cities where multiple
language children are in the same class, which language will the teacher teach
in?
15. State School Standards Authority (SSSA). Transparent public self-disclosure of all the basic
regulatory information, as laid down by the SSSA, will be used extensively for
public oversight and accountability. The SCERT will
Develop a School Quality Assessment and
Accreditation Framework (SQAAF), will this include ECE?
16.
A single
pedagogical unit called the “Foundational Stage”. It is necessary, therefore,
to develop and establish such an integrated foundational curricular and
pedagogical framework, and corresponding teacher preparation, for this critical
Foundational Stage of a child’s development. – How schools will work this out
and train already existing teachers in this will be the struggle. Also this
needs to be part of ECCE teacher training programs, and other teacher training
programs.
17.
Also does it mean that exiting private
standalone preschools can now extend to grade 2?
18.
A very heartening includion is that All school
children to undergo regular health check-ups and health cards will be issued-
we hope this will include ECE children too.
19. A
good initiative for health of young children is the inclusion of an energizing
breakfast in addition to midday meals.
Overall the
new education policy is a great vision to change the educational landscape in
this country and it vitalizes education by ensuring that ECE becomes the
starting point of education for all children.
ECA and APER
will be hosting a webinar in the coming week to analyse and throw light on many
aspects in the policy that will impact preschools and teachers. Details of the
same will be put on our whatsapp groups and facebook pages.
Regards,
National
Committee of
Early
Childhood Association
Association
for Primary Education and Research
