Trailblazing endeavour

The ECCE initiative, spearheaded by IAS officer Nalini Atul, has converged foundational education, community engagement and nutrition in Koppal district - offering a fresh and transformative outlook on early childhood education

- ANIL SWARUP

This young IAS officer, Nalini Atul, did it and deservedly won the Nexus of Good Annual Award, in 2024, for presenting a replicable model of Early Childhood Children Education (ECCE). This is an initiative aimed at developing and implementing an effective Curriculum for the foundational stage (3-6 years) in line with the objectives of NEP and laying the foundation of ECCE in AWCs of Koppal District. This is probably the only such comprehensive and sound principles initiative in the field of ECCE which keeps health and nutrition at par with education and provides a new vision for future Anganwadi centres as centres for holistic development of children to ensure "equality of opportunity to all children".

Evidence of this claim is that many states (Rajasthan, Meghalaya, UP, Chhattisgarh, and AP) have visited and expressed their willingness to implement this initiative. The World Bank's 2019 report "The Changing Nature of Work" cautions that as adults, today's schoolchildren will work in jobs not yet invented. The NEP 2020 observes that we are currently in a learning crisis, and many children are going through our schooling system without being able to learn the basic skills of literacy and numeracy.

The challenge is to develop a curriculum that ensures children not only learn but more importantly learn how to learn so that every child born in India can get the opportunity to engage with learning that is meaningful, contextually relevant, and enabling, and helps them realise their full potential.

Under ECCE, education skill and learning competency weigh 40 per cent, and 60 per cent importance is laid on health and nutrition.