9. ECCE Concerns

Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

ECCE CONCERNS INTRODUCTION With elaborate insights into the theoretical perspectives of early learning and development and a detailed list of the role of facilitator in adopting its implications, let us get into the direct aspects of ECCE, namely programme planning and practice, pedagogical techniques and strategies, assessment and effective transition of the young child. The previous module on the objectives and principles of ECCE served as a prelude for the ECCE facilitators. But to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively, every facilitator should be knowledgeable in identifying certain crucial issues of ECCE in India, to be addressed at both the policy level and at the curricular framework arena. Identification of these issues and evolving solutions would certainly strengthen the holistic development of children. I hope this module would lead you to this analysis. LEARNING OUTCOMES At the end of this module, you will be able to 

Appraise the changing trend and growing demand of ECCE in India



Review the objectives and implementation measures of various ECCE providers in India at Public, private and NGO’s level



Analyse the most common issues and concerns of ECCE provision



Examine the curricular issues of ECCE framework and measures to leverage these issues as opportunities to provide an enriched environment for the young minds to develop efficiently.

ECCE IN INDIA – CHANGING TREND Traditionally, the period of early childhood years was considered to be the period of laying foundation towards inculcation of basic values and social skills in them through the child rearing mode referred to as ‘indulgence'. Child rearing was a shared responsibility. The learning mechanism of the child was completely informal and was best done by stories and games involving the whole family. However an increase in women's work force and modernization, the overall social structure and practices had changed completely. The family structure of the joint family had seen a drastic decline, and the shared responsibility of child rearing 1

Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

has got shirked to the sole responsibility of the parents. Further, with women in the work force, the sole responsibility of upbringing children had a paradigm shift to delegated responsibility. The delegated responsibility varied from paid care givers to loaded responsibility of siblings. Hence, the informal childhood care education became extinct, and the formal Early Childhood Care setting was introduced in India during the latter half of the 19th century. With inputs from the early pioneer of ECCE in India namely Gijubhai, Tarabai, Montessori and Gandhiji, the concept of pre-basic education gained widespread popularity even to the rural parts of the country. The first government initiative on ECCE was Central Social Welfare Board in 1953. Following the initiative of CSWB other federally supported schemes such as Reproductive Child Health Scheme (RCH), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and preschool education provision through primary education programmes were initiated. As a result, remarkable progress had been observed in the field of ECCE. ECCE SERVICES IN INDIA This part of the module gives a list of ECCE services in India provided at public, private and NGO’s in a nutshell. a. Public ECCE services ECCE services as governmental initiatives were categorized within the umbrella of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) and Primary/Elementary Education Programmes. 

ECCE under MWCD The first initiative of MWCD on ECCE was the implementation of

Integrated Child Development Services in the year 1976 focussing on three major aspects namely health, nutrition and preschool education. The second initiative was the Early Childhood Education Scheme (ECE) in the year 1982. However, this scheme was late withdrawn.

On the other hand, governmental assistance

was provided to voluntary organisations for running crèches for children of working and ailing mothers. This assistance was implemented through the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) and Bharatiya Adim Jati Seva Sangh (BAJSS). As a fourth initiative government put into operation a programme called National Creche Fund in the year 1994. This programme served the community through five wings namely day care facilities, supplementary nutrition, immunization, 2

Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

medical and health care and recreation services. As the need of the community sill prevailed, the third and the fourth initiative of the government was merged and evolved as Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme for Working Mothers. This scheme reached the community at five levels such as sleeping facilities, health care, Supplementary nutrition, immunization and preschool education. 

ECCE under Primary/Elementary Education programmes To mainstream the ECCE services with the primary and the elementary

education programmes, the government took certain initiatives. The prominent among them are as follows. 1. District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) – DPEP adopted a convergent approach through three strategies  Relocating ICDS Centres to the primary school premises  Training ICDS service providers in ECCE  Providing play materials for children 2. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was a major initiative aimed at the universalization of elementary education 'in a time-bound manner' as mandated by the Constitution of India making fee and compulsory education to children of 6-14 years a fundamental right. 3. Mahila Samakhya – One another initiative by the Government of India that got launched in 1988 in pursuance of the goals of New Education Policy (1986) with maximum focus on to the rural areas. 4. Preschools attached to primary schools – Government of India also took measures to attach preschools to the existing primary schools as a convergence model of ECCE. b. Private initiatives on EECE As the public initiatives on ECCE by and large catering to the children of socio-economically disadvantaged communities, the private initiatives that are also referred to as profit-making initiatives work for the socially and economically well off communities. The ECCE services provided by the private initiatives are nurseries, kindergartens and pre-primary classes in private schools.

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Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

c. Voluntary/NGO initiatives on ECCE With all the possible initiatives by the government on ECCE, the problem of reaching out every socially and the economically deprived area was overcome by the initiatives taken by voluntary and non-governmental organizations.

These

organizations do play a significant role in providing education to the most vulnerable and special communities such as tribal people and migrant labourers. They render services through crèches/ECE centres, mobile crèches, laboratory nursery schools, and religious group preschools. The crèches/ECE centres in many places are run by mobilizing local resources. Mobile crèches cater to the migrant community. The Department of Human Development/Child Development of universities have laboratory nursery schools attached to them, and the curriculum of these schools was found to be more innovative and developmentally appropriate. Certain religious group also runs preschools that are found to be competitive to the private run preschools.

ISSUES AND CONCERNS IN ECCE The fact that is well realised in the arena of Early Childhood Care and Education is that despite substantial development of ECCE providers as both public and private initiatives, the status of children in India is still far from satisfactory. The children from the lower socio-economic status do not have easy access to good quality ECCE programmes amidst the tremendous expansion of ICDS all through the country. Hence it becomes essential to identify the major issues /concerns in ECCE at the first level and then to formulate strategies in overcoming the identified issues at the second level to make the policy implementation efficient. 1. Low priority to education needs and demands of 3-6-year-olds In the year 2006, ECCE had a shift in the ownership from the Department of Education of Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry 0f Women and Child Development. Though the coverage had expanded significantly and as per the statistical reports more children do receive the benefits of health and nutrition component of ICDS, the education component was not equally acknowledged. Moreover, an ambiguity still prevails in the understanding of the concept of ECCE. Hence an exclusive policy of ECCE with due focus on meeting out the educational

4

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needs and demands of children in their early years with specific relevance to the sub-stages within 0-6 years has to be formulated and implemented. 2.

Increasing coverage and quality compromise The statistics make it vivid in portraying the rapid expansion of ICDS throughout

the country. But the process of expansion at a faster rate has for sure compromised on its quality. A study by World Bank in the year 2005 has identified three mismatches in the implementation of ICDS, and all these three mismatches still exist.

a. Service mismatch The service provided by ICDS focusses on providing food security through supplementary nutrition with least focus on the sustained impact, which would have attained if the parents are educated in improving the child-care behaviours. b. Beneficiary mismatch The 3-6-year-old group is overlooked, and it was only the 0-3 year old received the potential benefits of ICDS. c. Geographical area mismatch The certain geographical area that needs the intervention the most is still not reached by ICDS. Even the areas that have been reached by ICDS needs strengthening of the programmes by contextualizing the programme design. 3.

A centralised approach of ECCE Realising the diversity of the nation, the process of formulating and

implementing the ECCE programmes need to be contextualised within the specified framework of ECCE. In other words, the planning and implementation have to be decentralised with a participatory approach based on local needs and demands. The decentralised initiative has more probability of reaching out to children in a more targeted and local specific mode. 4.

Harms of Early Formal Instruction Major city surveys on ECCE curriculum had concluded that children of 3-5

years are taught the syllabus prescribed for the class I and class II, totally neglecting the reality that these children are neither cognitively nor physically mature enough. 5

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Moreover, these children are subjected to regular assignments and periodic tests and examinations with a dose of homework.

Though the National Policy of

Education norms clearly states the advocacy of play-based, development oriented ECE; the reality is just the opposite. The formal instruction of ECE had slowly plunged into practice and is causing harm to young minds at both short terms and long term level. The short term risks mark the manifestation of stress and anxiety symptoms among children, and long term risks involve the far-reaching effects on the children's motivational, cognitive and psycho-social behaviour.

So what should the ECCE teachers do? 1. Believe in Katz's theory of learning dispositions by fostering the child's natural tendency or emotional attitude to learning. 2. Display curiosity and creativity and value the same disposition in children, and is likely to flourish in the classroom 3. Influence parents’ perception of their child’s dispositions and address the parental concerns regarding dispositions 5.

School readiness

School readiness is a concept that has been widely understood as a set of predetermined set of skills and abilities that a child should possess before entering the primary grade. Similarly, in India, it is assumed that achieving the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic (commonly known as 3R's) is called school readiness. The concept of readiness should be thought beyond the readiness of the child and currently it is defined by three interrelated and intertwined three aspects. a. Ready children b. Ready schools c. Ready families and communities. This new definition indicates that a young child is not innately ready for school. Their skill and development are strongly influenced by their interactions and experiences with the environment and people. Here are a few ways that foster smooth transition to school 

Ready children

 Use mother language as a prelude to and complement bilingual and multilingual education 6

Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

 The curriculum of ECE and primary education should comprise of activities fostering readiness 

Ready schools

 Schools should accept the fact that children learn at a different pace.  Pre-primary programmes should make meaningful connections with the child’s home, culture and community  Skill-full and resourceful teachers are essential 

Ready families

 Supporting family and simulative home environment.  Enable parents to foster reading books, playing games, narrating stories and reciting rhymes  Ensure parental commitment to enrolling their children at the right time When all of these three aspects are equally considered, a smooth transition of the child to school programs becomes effective. 6.

Quality of ECCE The quality of ECCE depends on the provision of basic leaning conditions for

children up to six years. The following section would highlight the issues and concerns to be looked upon and resolved in the curricular aspects of ECCE. a. Inadequate teacher competence Though the basic infrastructure facilities gain an important position, the quality of the teachers who provide early learning experiences gains priority. Every teacher involved in ECE implementation should be professionally trained in child development and behaviour. Moreover, the teachers even after recruitment have to be periodically trained on their psycho-social competence. The training provisions for teachers of ECCE is a wide spectrum with marked variations in its curriculum and duration. Simultaneously the educational eligibility norm of recruitment ranges from no bar to primary classes to class 12. These deviations do compromise the quality of ECCE which had to be immediately controlled by laying down the norms and standards of educational eligibility and training quality for every ECCE provider/facilitator. b. Lack of universal ECCE curriculum framework 7

Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

The next crucial aspect that has to be given due importance in maintaining the quality of ECCE programmes is the curriculum framework. It is very clear that the first six years of life are crucial in laying a strong foundation for a child’s development associated with lifelong learning. The impoverished home settings of a child need to be compensated by an ECCE framework. The curriculum should be developmentally appropriate as the 0-6 years life span can be envisaged in three levels.

Objective and method of the three levels of ECCE

Levels

Beneficiaries -

Objective

Method

Children I

Less than three Early stimulation

Parental involvement and

years

education

in

a

relative

unstructured mode. II

3-5 year

Learn while you Organised play

play

and

centre

based

development-

oriented curriculum. III

4-6 years

School readiness

Organised

centre

preparation

for

schooling

that

based primary includes

reading, writing and number readiness.

c. A mismatch between prescription and practice Though the curriculum framework is prescribed by the policy makers, the reality of the gap that exists between the prescribed framework and the actual practice need to be addressed. The policy states that the child in an ECCE centre has to be exposed to play activities that provide experience for children in understanding concepts. However, by practice every ECCE centre 8

Early Childhood Care and Education

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adheres to the teaching of 3 R's (Readiness skills on reading, writing and arithmetic) with minimal play experience and less competent workers. This lacunae between the prescription and practice of ECCE worsens with the absence of universal accreditation measures that could regulate the quality of ECCE. d. Multilingualism Language plays an important role in communication, exchange of information, development of reading skills, reading with comprehension and in later years, academic success. Little attention is being paid to language acquisition and experience in ECCE programmes. In a multilingual country like India, language teaching and acquisition at a younger age becomes a multifaceted concern. Using a single Indian language or the most commonly used official language - English as a medium of instruction in preschools makes it difficult for children with different language background. So what could be done? 7. Home language should be the medium of instruction. However, introduce as many common languages for expression in the classroom 8. As children learn many languages in the first six years of life, utilise ECCE service to introduce school language of primary classes in a phased manner. 9. As there is a widespread demand and explicit desire for English even at the preschool level, the multilingual classroom setting could be the better option. However, the ECCE teachers must continue to convey a positive attitude about the child’s home language and create community awareness initiatives to make the parents understand what is developmentally appropriate for their children. 10. Needed training support should be provided to the ECCE teachers to deal with different languages at a time.

11. Insufficient training for ECCE teachers/facilitators/caregivers The most important factor in determining the quality of ECCE programmes is the quality of ECCE teachers/facilitators/caregivers. However, this is the most neglected aspect of the educational system of India. The National Policies focussing on ECCE did never emphasize on the recruitment norms, training, coaching and 9

Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

ongoing support of the ECCE teachers. Hence the teachers/caregivers are inadequately prepared or wholly unprepared. Though the National policy of ECCE states recruitment norms of completion of courses on ECCE, the duration, methodology and the exposure level to theory and practice of these courses were not made clear. As a result, the courses completed by the recruited staff are obsolete and devoid of practical training. So, what can the government do on this issue? 1. The government approved courses on Child Development/Human Development/Early Childhood Education run by Universities and colleges should be immediately recognized and approved as the basic eligibility norm for the recruitment of ECCE teachers. 2. A complete ban over the courses run by private institutions with no standards for curricula or duration and even the methodology has to be initiated. The problem of the quality of ECCE teachers doesn’t stop here as the staff recruited for the ECCE programme have to be periodically updated with certain recognized short term courses. CONCLUSION To sum up, this module on ECCE concerns has traced the changing trend and growing demand of ECCE in India as both governmental and private initiatives. It has also reviewed the objectives and implementation measures of various ECCE providers in India. Gradually the module revisited the National Education Policy on ECCE

and

struck

upon

seven

major

issues/concerns

concerning

ECCE

implementation. Each of these issues was elaborated and examined for the provision/curricular aspects of ECCE framework put forth measures to leverage these issues as opportunities to provide an enriched environment for the young minds to develop efficiently.

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Early Childhood Care and Education

Module 09

Public ECCE services

Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD)  ICDS (1976)  Health  Nutrition and  Preschool Education  Early Childhood Education Scheme (1982)  Scheme of Assistance to Voluntary Organizations for running crèches for children of working and ailing mothers (1975)  Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW)  Bhartiya Adim Jati Seva Sangh (BAJSS)  National Creche Fund (1994)  Day care facilities  Supplementary nutrition  Immunization  Medical and health care  Recreation services  Rajiv Gandhi National crèche Scheme for Working Mothers  Sleeping facilities  Health care  Supplementary nutrition  Immunization  Preschool education

Voluntary/NGO ECCE under Primary/Elementary Education Programmes  District Primary Education Programmes (DPEP) – Convergent approach  Relocating ICDS centre to primary school premises  Training ICDS service providers in ECCE  Providing play materials for children  Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) - Universalizing elementary education  Mahila Samakhya – Rural areas 11  Preschools attached to primary schools - Education/Convergence model of ECCE)

   

Creches/ECE centres Mobile crèches Laboratory nursery schools Religious group preschools

Private  Nurseries  Kindergartens  Pre-primary classes