Reforming Early Childhood Education Programs in Rural Areas of India: Equity in Preschool Education

A child's early years (0-8 y) are the critical development years, as this is when the foundation for learning is laid. A strong learning foundation yields better school performance and increases the likelihood of attaining higher education, resulting in major social and economic gains for society. The early childhood care and education of nearly 80 million Indian children, below the age of six, is covered by Integrated Child Development Services through 1.37 million Anganwadi centers (AWCs). Sixty percent of these children are from rural areas. Preschool education, immunization, health check-ups, referrals, dietary supplements, growth monitoring, and education on health and nutrition are provided at the AWCs. Forty-two percent of these rural children receive pre-school education at the AWCs, and the majority are from disadvantaged families. In this study for evaluating the status of early childhood education programs at rural AWCs, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 71 AWCs across 25 villages in Haryana, to assess their physical setup, availability of learning resources, and administration and Anganwadi workers' knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding early childhood education. The findings suggest that most of the AWCs do not have proper infrastructure, are not adequately safe, and compromise on health and hygiene. Further, learning resources are scarce and the Anganwadi workers are not trained well enough to impart knowledge and skills to children in a sustained manner. Many of them do not understand the importance of partnering with parents for children's holistic development. Although this study is limited to 71 AWCs in Mewat, the literature review indicates that these issues and challenges are common to rural villages, which is a serious concern for equity in preschool education. Thus, there is a need for several prompt reforms in early childhood education programs in rural areas of India to bring equity into preschool education. [For the full proceedings, see ED654100.]