Women and child development ministry launches curriculum for education, care of children under 6 years

NEW DELHI: The ministry of women and child development has launched a national curriculum for early childhood care and education (ECCE) for children in the age group 3 to 6 years. The ministry also announced a national framework for early childhood stimulation for children below three years.

The ministry said the national curriculum for ECCE 2024 will cover domains as per the national curriculum framework for foundation stage (NCF-FS) 2022. The domains that will be covered include physical/motor, cognitive, language and literacy, socioemotional, cultural, aesthetic and positive habits.

The curriculum aims at improving the quality of education at the anganwadi centres across the country. It will prioritise competency-based lesson plans and activities. The curriculum will focus on how children learn in the early years, with a focus on playful joy-based learning, in preparation for primary school.

Features of curriculum for ECCE 2024

The students at anganwadi centres will be provided 36 weeks of active learning, eight weeks of reinforcement and four weeks of initiation, together with 5+1 days of play-based learning in one week, and three blocks of activities in one day. The new curriculum will provide for a combination of activities, including in-centre and at-home, indoor and outdoor, child-led and educator-led.

The ministry supports mothers and their children under six years through Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, together with the Palna and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) Schemes under Mission Shakti. The ministry runs 13.9 lakh Anganwadi Centres around the country, catering to more than 8 crore children under the age of six years.

Training of anganwadi workers

The National Framework for Early Childhood Stimulation 2024 for children from birth to three years has been launched to empower caregivers and anganwadi workers for holistic early stimulation. “It fills conceptual and practical gaps in the understanding of care and stimulation, based on the nurturing care framework,” the ministry said.

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The anganwadi workers will be trained in basic understanding of how children grow and develop, the importance of brain development and the need for nurturing care. It focuses on the principles of serve and return, caregiver’s three acts – love, talk, play, and positive guidance. A total of 36 month-wise age-based activities are provided that can be conducted both within the household as well as at the anganwadi centre or creche, through all the contact points including home visits, monthly meetings and community-based events.

The documents have been prepared by the National Institute for Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), with the support of an Internal Committee and development partners. NIPCCD will lead the training of anganwadi functionaries on the new curriculum and framework.