Early Childhood Education

This issue focuses on the theme of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). It has been guest edited by our Kolkata-based partner organization, Vikramshila Education Resource Society. The pieces in this issue make the overall case for the importance of ECCE as an educational sub-domain and as an area of societal concern.

In his essay titled ‘Early childhood education in urban Anganwadis,’ Atul Gaikwad discusses how we can use the ICDS system effectively to cater to the educational needs of young children from marginalized social groups living in urban areas.

In her perceptive article, Neelima Gokhale discusses ways of understanding the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and their caregivers. In a brief opinion piece titled ‘Empowering CSOs and Schools,’ Dr Venita Kaul succinctly shows us ways of negotiating the relationship between research, policy and practice in ECCE.

In a brief opinion piece titled ‘Empowering CSOs and Schools,’ Dr Venita Kaul succinctly shows us ways of negotiating the relationship between research, policy and practice in ECCE.

Sunisha Ahuja, in her essay, focuses on the need to develop programs for implementing NEP’s recommendations regarding ECCE on the ground, to ensure that the learning needs of the most underprivileged young children are met.

In their piece titled ‘Holistic development and assessment in early childhood education,’ Umamaheswara Rao Jaggena and Kinnari Pandya discuss the Early Learner Assessment (ELA) tool developed by Azim Premji Foundation (APF) in the context of its ECE interventions, that allows for integrating learnings from assessment at the levels of both the children and the program for enhancing quality of learning.