Union Cabinet Approved Three Proposals of National Early Childhood Care & Education Policy

The Union Cabinet on 20 September 2013 approved three proposals of the National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy.  The policy is to promote inclusive, equitable and contextualized opportunities for promoting optimal development and active learning capacity of all children below six years.

The three proposals

1.The first proposal is to implement and monitor the policy through National and State Early Childhood Care and Education Councils.

2.The second one is to develop National Early Childhood Care and Education Curriculum Framework and Quality Standards and circulate to the States and Union Territories for preparation of Action Plans and implementation by them.

3.The third proposal is to delegate power to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to make necessary changes.

The Policy would help to 158.7 million children under six years of age who need holistic and integrated early childhood care. In particular it would enable preschool education inputs for their optimum development to realize their potential.

The vision of the National ECCE Policy is to promote inclusive, equitable and contextualized opportunities for promoting optimal development and active learning capacity of all children below six years of age. The Policy focus is on early preschool learning for every child below six years.

The key areas of this policy are universal access with equity and inclusion, quality in ECCE, strengthening capacity, monitoring and supervision, advocacy, research and review.

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal Ministry to implement the National ECCE Policy.