The early childhood care and education (ECCE) modules for children between the ages of 3 and 6 enrolled in anganwadi centres were introduced by Union Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Smriti Irani. She also noted that the Centre has begun training anganwadi employees for it.
The “Poshan bhi padhai bhi” modules were introduced in accordance with the national education policy (NEP) 2020, which places an emphasis on early childhood care and fundamental learning while emphasising that over 85% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs before the age of six.
ECCE Task Force was established by the WCD ministry, according to Irani, who spoke to the media during the launch. The Task Force has already filed its report and advised training anganwadi workers in the module.
“Its recommendations included capacity-building through a 3-day in-person training, follow-up refresher training, new Teaching Learning Material (TLM), including activity books and toys, and a workshop on usage and creation of toys,” she said.
The WCD minister stated that the goal is to expand the role of anganwadi centres beyond simply serving as nutrition centres to include educational institutions. In the nation, there are over 14 lakh anganwadi centres that serve 10,02,60,464 clients. According to Irani, 600 crores are being suggested as an allocation for the Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi training programme.
Over 1.5 million parents took part in the endeavour to test the audiovisual and educational material, which is being tested in about seven states. In order to ensure that the state government does not construct the training programme for the “Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi” module in isolation, the ministry under the Office of the Secretary WCD also held conferences electronically and in person with state government representatives, she added.
The Ministry of Social Justice and state ministries will work together to create educational materials for kids with special needs in the interim.
“The anganwadi help workers can help create new methodologies of engaging with children who are divyang (specially abled) with regards to early childhood development,” she added. “They can also assist in counselling parents so that their children can come to anganwadi.”
