Pathways to make ECE in India inclusive and equitable for children with disabilities

Early childhood education (ECE) is imperative to make primary, secondary and tertiary education inclusive and equitable for children with disabilities. Inclusion in education needs to take an intersectional approach to identify and break down barriers.

These include attitudinal, physical, social, emotional and academic barriers. Such an approach is also needed to increase meaningful participation of all children in the education system.

This emphasis on inclusion and equity in ECE has been reiterated several times in National Education Policy 2020 (NEP, 2020). It highlights the need for a strong base for ECCE Early Childhood Care and Learning from ages 3-6 years, with the aim of promoting overall learning, development and well-being.

The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat Mission) emphasizes the following developmental goals: Children maintain good health and well-being; Children become effective communicators; Children become involved learners and connect with their immediate environment.

These developmental goals for children are further articulated in National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Curriculum Framework that has emerged from NEP 2020.

This reflects a strong focus on child development, well-being and engagement for learning. This framework moves away from traditional models focused on academic outcomes.

Both children with and without disabilities benefit from having an equitable and inclusive structure of education where their developmental, social, emotional and educational needs are met. Inclusion is not possible for one group at a time. Rather, we need to adopt the inclusion and equity lens for all students to set them up for success.

This understanding seems to be embedded in the recent Indian education landscape as evidenced in NEP 2020, NIPUN Bharat, ECCE Curricular Framework, teacher trainings, etc. Reflecting specifically in the sphere of early childhood education, three essential factors stand out that can possibly provide a pathway to make early childhood education in India more inclusive and equitable for children with disabilities.

Examining existing systems and processes

It is important to examine existing systems and processes to understand where we stand. This is essential for us to be able to re-look at resources, training, knowledge and skills that will be required to achieve the desired outcomes as laid down in our policy documents for inclusive ECE and plan for it. This has been identified in NEP 2020.

It is important to implement its recommendations regarding strengthening early childhood institutions. These consist of stand-alone Anganwadis, Anganwadis co-located within primary schools, pre-primary sections located within primary sections covering at least till 5 or 6 years of age, and stand-alone pre-schools. However, we must also examine the readiness of these institutions to provide inclusive ECE.

The rainbow-colored infinity symbol represents the diversity of the autism spectrum and the greater neurodiversity movement.

NCERT’s Index for Inclusive Schools aims to facilitate schools to welcome and respect diversity and helps to reflect on restructuring school culture, policies and practices for facilitating participation of all students in education, including those with disabilities. Such guidelines can be helpful in ECE as well.

As the ECE curricular framework rightly points out, the defining features of inclusive ECE remain access, participation and support. Hence it is important to examine the current ECE structures and institutions around these three parameters.

This also helps in adding to, and building on, existing systems to strengthen them, instead of starting a completely new system. We have a huge workforce of Anganwadi workers and ECE educators and institutions and these valuable resources need to be harnessed.

At Ummeed Child Development Center, we often talk about the need to ‘change the system’ and to refrain from trying to change the child to fit the system. This perspective also echoes in many policy documents. Hence, it becomes pertinent to examine the readiness of the system to include the child in ECE and prepare for inclusion.

Planning for inclusive early childhood education

The next step involves planning for inclusive ECE. Here an important consideration is adopting an intersectional lens for inclusive ECE and developing an understanding that different identities of class, caste, gender, disability, etc., intersect. We cannot plan for inclusion of one group at a time. Rather, we have to take an intersectional approach while planning for inclusive ECE.

The Indian education system adopts a rights based approach to education. All children, with or without disabilities, enjoy rights to equitable and quality education. Thus, the starting point of planning for inclusive ECE is to know that it is the right of every child and adopt it as a core component of the planning process.

To plan for inclusive ECE, it is important to espouse a strength-based approach where a child’s strengths are in the forefront. The starting point is always ‘What the child can do,’ instead of adopting a deficit lens of ‘What the child cannot do.’

Adopting a strength-based approach is the cornerstone in any plan for the inclusion and support of all children who we provide services to at Ummeed Child Development Center. This helps to build upon the strengths of the child and aids them in forging ahead. We need to plan for the following.

Support early identification and create robust systems that can provide early support: There is a vast body of literature that supports the notion that early identification of disabilities is crucial to mitigate challenges that a person with disabilities might face.

However, an equally important factor that accompanies early identification of disabilities and developmental delays is subsequently providing early support and access to services and accessibility of the environment and resources (physical, social, emotional and academic). Hence, while planning for inclusive ECE, it is important to ensure that support structures and service provisions are available post-identification.

Training of early childhood educators on inclusive teaching and learning and building reflexivity: Another important factor is investing in building capacity of the Anganwadi workers and ECE educators, so that they are able to provide inclusive education from the early years. While there is a lot of emphasis on training, it must also take into account the needs of the diverse learners that enter the education system.

The ECE curriculum must be flexible, multifaceted, multi-level, play-based and inquirybased. It should also be able to respond to the needs of diverse students and be modifiable. ECE educators should be able to adapt it as per the needs of their pupils.

For this, the ECE educator should be trained to adopt a reflexive approach. A crucial understanding that underpins inclusive teaching and learning is that it is nothing more than just good teaching and learning practices that has reflexivity of the teacher. This enables them to draw on their existing knowledge and experience to provide the best learning environment to the diversity of students they encounter.

Making the system responsive: Another important thing to consider while planning for inclusive ECE is to build inclusion into all its aspects. These include physical and motor development, cognitive development, socioemotional-ethical development, cultural/ artistic development, and the development of communication and early language, literacy and numeracy.

What I mean by this is that we need to build systems that are proactive and responsive to the needs of diverse learners right from the start, instead of being reactive to the needs of diverse learners on a needs basis. While I acknowledge that some needs will need to be addressed on an ongoing basis, we need to be prepared to respond to a diversity of learners.

At Ummeed, we have drawn on the Universal Design for Learning approach. Through this, we try to ensure that systems and process including teaching and learning are responsive to the needs of diverse learners.

Partnering with parents, caregivers and community members: Adopting a familycentred care approach has been an important part of Ummeed’s philosophy. It honours the strengths, cultures, traditions and expertise of the families.

This helps to build a collaborative approach between the families and the professionals. Partnering with families, caregivers and community members is important toward building an inclusive community that works together to further inclusive ECE.

Sensitizing parents and caregivers on the early care and support that is available, partnering with them for ECE, etc., can help to strengthen communication and support between ECE educators and the former. Partnering with parents, caregivers and community members makes space for accountability.

It also ensures that parents and community members are invested and feel an integral part of their child’s learning and development journey. This kind of collaboration is essential for sustaining inclusive ECE.

While reflecting on the pathways to inclusive ECE, it is important to consider it as an ongoing process. Inclusion is an ever-evolving goal that requires us to engage with it both conceptually and in action. This is essential to ensure feelings of belongingness with peers, teachers, and the community.

It also helps to ensure that the rights to quality and equitable education are upheld and students’ well-being is kept in the forefront as the main outcome.

This essay has taken a systems approach. The goal has been to reflect on certain pathways that can pave the way for inclusive ECE for children with disabilities.

However, it must be acknowledged that this is not a linear pathway. We need to adopt a long-term vision. We also must continue evaluating our processes and practices to ensure that we are providing inclusive ECE.