Against the backdrop of news reports that the Union government is mulling a prop-osal to regulate early childhood (0-6 years) education (ECE), which currently is not subject to any government interference or regulation, a panel discussion on the subject ‘Should the Central/state governments regulate ECE?’ evoked a spirited debate in favour and against government intervention — except for the purpose of upgrading the 1.2 million anganwadis (mother and child nutrition centres) established by the Union government countrywide.
Chaired by EducationWorld editor Dilip Thakore (DT), the specially constituted discussion panel comprised Farida Lambay (FL), co-founder and trustee of Pratham, one of India’s largest and most respected education NGOs which provides remedial education to 3 million children countrywide, and publishes the invaluable Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) measuring actual learning outcomes in government and private primaries in 522 rural districts of India; Dr. Reeta Sonawat (RS), author and professor of human development at SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai; veteran educationist Elizabeth Mehta (EM), founder of the Muktangan educational programme which currently manages seven Mumbai municipal corporation primary schools; and Arun Khetan (AK), managing director of the New Age Knowledge Solutions Ltd and a pioneer of the franchise model of ECE education, credited with establishing over 1,000 preschools countrywide. Excerpts from the 100 minute panel discussion which also elicited valuable inputs from among the 260 delegates at ECE Global Conference 2011.
DT: Currently any individual can establish an ECE centre in her flat, garage, garden or any other premises without being subject to supervision or direction from any official of the Union HRD ministry or the state government’s education ministry. The outcome of this lack of supervision is that the great majority of the country’s estimated 50,000 privately-run ECE centres aka preschools are mere crèches run by untrained business entrepr-eneurs, most of whom impose age-inappropriate nursery and primary education upon infants often creating a life-long aversion to schooling and academia.
On the other hand, inviting govern-ment regulation and supervision of ECE is to invite corruption and bribe demands from perhaps even more inexpert government inspectors who have demonstrated little more than nuisance value while targeting private primaries and secondaries, without bothering about raising teaching-learning standards in the country’s 1.26 million government schools.
RS: There’s a severe dearth of educ-ation professionals in ECE. Despite this, private preschools have mushroomed in almost all cities countrywide. Most of their owners don’t have any background or qualification in ECE. They run preschools in garages, flats, malls etc where it is impossible to provide basic facilities like adequate space and outdoor play. Besides, a large market share of the preschool sector has been taken by large franchisers who violate a basic principle of preschool education: they develop the curriculum in one place and implement it in diverse locations and communities. Moreover most teachers working in this sector are unqualified and under-qualified. Hence it’s important to regulate early childhood education.
AK: In my opinion government regul-ation always has positive and negative outcomes. However all said and done, regulation leads to standardisation and creates channels for public spending and perhaps even foreign investment. Massive public investment in preschool education is required in this poor country in which most families cannot afford to enroll their children in private preschools. The negative aspect of government regulation is that a large proportion of allocations may be squandered, defeating the objective of universalising ECE. Nevertheless we must advocate that all anganwadis established under ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) be transformed into carefully regulated preschools. Simultaneously the creat-ivity and freedom of private players should be encouraged by way of infrastructure support, tax exemptions and subsidised bank loans.
FL: Given the fact that there is a mix of good, bad and ugly private sector preschools with the latter in the majority, the need for regulation of ECE is imperative. Unfortunately the Right to Education Act, 2009 completely ignores education of children below six years. Therefore the Act needs to be amended to specify — in collaboration with representative associations of private preschools — the basic requisites of a preschool, as it does for primary and upper primary schools.
EM: Yes. Public-private cooperation in devising the regulatory framework is very important, because currently there is very little expertise and appropriately informed leadership in government to ensure implementation of regulations is done in a manner which would improve quality. Ill-informed regulation would put a stranglehold on innovation which is so important for quality improvement.
RS: The need to regulate ECE is impe-rative. But to eliminate the danger of ill-informed inspector raj, it would be advisable to create an independent agency recognised by the Central and state governments to supervise ECE teacher training, curriculum development, and to licence and accredit preschools.
EM: There is also a pressing need to promote Indian Institutes of Child Development on the lines of IIMs and IITs to conduct meaningful research in the area of child development, given that India hosts the world’s largest child population.
FL: The 1.2 million anganwadis established by the Central government under ICDS to provide early childhood and motherhood nutrition offer an excellent opportunity to universalise ECE. The southern state of Andhra Pradesh, which has introduced ECE in anganwadis as also in urban municipal schools, offers a good example of ways and means to universalise early child-hood care and education.
DT: Quite clearly, as indicated by the unanimity within this panel, there is growing awareness not only in middle class India, which has taken to private preschools in a big way, but also in academia about the vital importance of quality ECE. A consensus has emerged that the public interest demands amendment of the RTE Act, 2009 to include 0-5 age group children within its ambit. Some useful suggestions have also been made by the knowledgeable members of this panel on how to reduce licence-permit-quota raj in ECE which urgently needs to be universalised. One hopes that our ill-qualified masters in the education ministries at the Centre and in the states — who seem determined to remain ignorant and ill-read — will take heed of these valuable suggestions.