Raising a child in the current circumstances is both an experience to cherish and at the same time quite demanding as parents have to invest both time and finances to let their child realize their actualized potential. To hone the skills of their children as per demand and requirement, the first priority for a parent is to offer quality education. The parents are ready to sacrifice everything to safeguard the education of their children. So the first priority for a modern day parent is to choose the right kind of the school for his/her child, which can cater the diverse learning needs. To access quality driven educational institutions, the parent has to move from pillar to post to explore the available options. The author like any other parent was excited and at the same anxious to look for best possible schooling options to get his ward enrolled in kindergarten section. I explored ample options in Southern landscape of Kashmir valley and finally zeroed in certain viable options regarding whom I received positive feedback from diverse quarters and therefore made my mind to get my ward admitted in one those so called innovation and futuristic driven schools.

With all the excitement I went along with my child for the so called assessment where in they will assess whether the child fits in their self created criteria of learning environment. In the school premises I was given a time slot for the unjustified assessment which otherwise is strongly discouraged by the renowned educationists all over the world. Infact Honorable Supreme Court passed clear direction and abstained school authorities to put child to any psychological discomfort in the name of so called assessment. Even Ministry of Education and Literacy came up with detailed guidelines and issued instructions in this regard to do away with any kind of assessment in determining the admission especially at the pre-primary level. At the first instance, I thought the school authorities will hold a sort of informal interaction with the parents to discuss the attainment of age -appropriate developmental milestones. But to our utter shock and disbelief, we were told to hand over the child to the assessment team and the child was taken to solitary confinement in a room and we were not allowed to accompany the child and left guessing outside the room and they even locked the room from inside.

Imagine the psychological discomfort child had gone through on being subjected to torturous assessment by the faces unfamiliar to him. When the child came out of the room, the author went to school authorities to discuss certain reservations he had in his mind. The author raised a valid point, why there is need to assess the child even for admission to a pre-primary class. The authorities in a confident tone replied that it is integral on their part to assess the child to gauge the level of attainment of developmental milestones and to check whether the child is suffering from any kind of disability. With eyes wide open, I echoed in a shrill voice , what if the child is suffering from any kind of disability , will you accommodate the children with special needs( CWSN). Their response was literally a bolt from blue: How can we enroll such children in our elite institution and such children are to be admitted in special schools.

The author replied, the children with special needs have to live in normalized society with their counterparts from disability free section, so why to admit them in special schools? Are they supposed to lead their life in a different society? The landmark legislation enacted in 2016 titled Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 vociferously advocates in enrolling children with special needs in main stream education system instead of establishing special schools . The act even makes it clear that if any school deprives any specially abled child from his legitimate right to access quality education , the school can face de-recognition and hefty fine if found violating the provisions of the Act. However the elitist private schools in our part of the world have found to take these legislations and circulars and orders for a toss. The modus operandi of these institutions is to access to desired lot of students through the assessment and they do not stop here: then they demand lucrative amount in the name of annual fee, franchise fee, school development fee, capitation fee besides the normalized tuition fee and transportation fee. The elitist school, author is talking about is receiving capitation fee to the tune of 80000. They are selling education rather than rendering it accessible to all. The circulars and orders from time to time from the School Education Department although categorically communicate to do away with any assessment at the time of admission and charging capitation fee of any kind but the instructions are hardly seen implemented by these elitist vendors of education.

NEP 2020 and ECCE:

The essence of NEP 2020 lies in shifting the paradigm of education from content memorization to attainment of competencies. The skill of hard memorization is now considered as a redundant and obsolete skill, as this skill is not sufficient enough to mitigate the challenges of 21st century. The challenges posed by 21st century are quite varied and complex as compared to the challenges encountered in previous centuries. The educational institutions therefore have to strive towards creating congenial learning atmosphere which in the longer run fosters lifelong learning in modern day learners, who can in turn meaningfully contribute in the society. Are our schools ready to embrace the provisions of NEP 2020? Or our schools will still stick to traditional way of schooling? In that case what will be the fate of otherwise such a meticulously crafted policy. The effective implementation of any ground breaking intervention is determined by the sincere will and commitment of all the relevant stake holders. One of the standout recommendations of NEP 2020 is the conceptualization of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) which was previously unheard in earlier policies.

ECCE is crucial to the overall development of children, with impacts on their learning .Evidence on Early childhood education suggests that children who engage in early and play based learning activities have better developmental outcomes than those who don’t. According to National curriculum Frame work (2022) for foundational stage education of children in the three to eight years, research from across the world on education , neurosciences and economics demonstrates clearly that ensuring free, accessible, high quality early childhood care education is perhaps the very best investment that any country can make for its future. It further elaborated that brain development is most rapid in the first eight years of a child’s life, indicating the critical importance of cognitive and socio-emotional simulation in early years.

The National Curricular Frame work for foundational stage (2022) has listed the ‘panchakosha’ concept for education of children and its five integral domains are physical development, development of life energy , emotional and mental development , intellectual development and spiritual development. The ECCE model relies on play based, inquiry based learning with focus on cognitive, affective, psychomotor abilities and early literacy and numeracy. The design of teaching -learning instructional pedagogy therefore is to hone physical and motor development, cognitive development , socio-emotional ethical development , cultural /artistic development and at the same time acquisition of effective communication, language , early literacy and numeracy at the preparatory stage The ultimate aim of ECCE is to attain optimal outcomes in different domains. Somehow early childhood education has remained both under invested and under explored over decades. The argument for increased investment in early childhood care and education is a basic one – human resources are the bedrock of a nation, and early childhood is the bed rock of a human being .