The learning crisis that plagues the education ecosystem in India is well-documented. From age-inappropriate literacy and numeracy levels in younger cohorts to a mismatch in the attained skills and the job market requirement at the higher education levels, the inconsistencies within the training delivery is a great concern cutting across geographies, socio-economic groups and cultural entities. Additionally, factors like inaccessibility to the Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) for the children who get enrolled in Grade 1 coupled with other socio-cultural and economic constraints have hindered the progress of the education sector to a great extent. To address some of these key concerns the National Education Policy (NEP) was formulated in 2020 towards building an equitable, inclusive and plural society as envisaged by our Constitution (NCF, 2022). The NEP 2020 continues to be a milestone in the education landscape proposed 34 years after the one in 1986 which is said to have lacked a futuristic vision, coverage of well-being aspects and due importance given to the mother tongue and the early childhood care.

Embedded in the core principles of the NEP 2020 is the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2022 which envisages the purpose of the education system to develop rational and good human beings possessing the attributes of compassion, empathy, courage, resilience, scientific temper with high ethical values. The NCF for the foundational stage provides the stakeholders a comprehensive picture of the educational landscape and indicating the role that family, teachers, peer-groups and the community at large will play towards the holistic development of the children aged 3-8 years in sync with the 5+3+3+4 system proposed by the recent NEP 2020.

What does the NCF 2022 state?

Worldwide research indicates that the initial years after child birth is critical for the overall development and 85 percent of the brain develops during this phase. This reflects the importance of locomotion, interaction (both verbal and non-verbal), communication and responding to sounds by children in the initial ages after birth. The NEP 2020 clearly mentions that the first eight years play a decisive role in the socio-emotional, physical and cognitive development of the child which in turn is deeply intertwined in the literacy and the numeracy levels at later stages with growing age. Therefore, children should be nurtured well at the foundational stages so that their roots grow stronger to support a sustainable future.

Being at the core of delivering formal education, teachers are the main focus of the NCF 2022 and their insights are sought at each level from carving out the curriculum to developing the content and finally delivering it to the young minds with age-appropriate pedagogy. Alongside providing adequate nutrition and healthcare in the early years, a great synchrony is envisaged amongst the teachers, administrators, parents and the community members to help children develop socially and emotionally garnering the merits of thoughtfulness, ethics, creativity and empathy.

The external development in a child cannot be visualized in isolation from the internal development. A healthy child with well-developed social emotional skills usually makes rational choices and take firm decisions in life and also reap the benefit of learned knowledge by applying them appropriately for the own benefit and that of the society at large. Deep diving into the traditional Indian philosophy of Panchakosha Vikas which signifies the overall development the outer and the inner self, the NCF 2022 has brought together learning practices for enabling the physical, mental, intellectual, spiritual and emotional development.

One of the key initiatives proposed by the NEP 2020 is that of Vidya Pravesh, which mentions that children entering the formal educational system and enrolling in Class 1 would engage in play-based activities that would help them in learning about the school environment, ethical values and cultural diversity in turn capacitate them with the basic skills, knowledge and understanding and foster the overall development combining all the aspects of Panchakosha Vikas. To this end, specific curricular goals have been set focusing on developing emotional regulation, positive attitude for social service, positive regard for the environment, out of the box thinking with sharp observation and logic and communication skills with emphasis on the mother tongue or local language.

NCF as founding pillars of NEP

The focus of the National Education Policies has had different trajectories depending on the temporal need. From improving the literacy rates in the post independent India to the increase in the age-appropriate reading and numeracy levels in the 1990s to focus on a multidisciplinary and holistic education, the sole purpose of the NEPs over time was to build a morally and ethically strong nation. The NEP 2020 has set specific goals for children enrolling them for the foundational stages starting at age 3 (pre-school) and ending at 8 years of age (grade 2) which includes achieving universal provisioning of quality ECCE, attaining optimum outcomes of physical, cognitive, social-emotional and ethical, cultural or artistic development along with the attainment of age-appropriate literacy and numeracy levels and means of communication and development of early language and institutionalization of flexible, multifaceted play and activity based learning practices.

In order to bring about a holistic development of the child in terms of their ethical, emotional, intellectual, social and physical skills, the NCF 2022 emphasizes on giving equal weightage to the arts and the science subjects and the curricular and the extra-curricular activities. Moreover, to develop the critical and analytical thinking, the framework has brought in place a new curricular and a pedagogical structure which prescribes a play-based, flexible learning at the foundational level. It also emphasizes on large scale research, longitudinal and cross-sectional studies reflecting evidence of improved social and emotional skills, cognitive resilience amongst children.

Social emotional focus of the NCF

Having recognised the sensitivity of the early years of the child’s birth in developing the cognitive, social-emotional and linguistic skills, the NCF brings out the pedagogical approach for children aged 3 to 8 years. Stimulation experiences guided by organized play- based activities help motivate children emotionally and mentally. Play facilitates the observational, listening, watching, interacting, thinking and communication skills in the children and therefore turn out to be an effective method for the holistic development. The strength of the NCF lies in its provision to accommodate development delays in children and moving away from the notion of one size fits all!

As the primary caregivers, parents (especially mothers) introduce a child to healthy nutrition, emotional support and social engagement, the secondary and tertiary caregivers like the extended family members also catalyses development of the children through knowledge sharing, narrating traditional stories in their mother tongue. It is in this context that the NCF focuses on the fact that at the foundational stage the curriculum and the pedagogy needs to be rooted in the child’s life experiences reflecting the socio-cultural context in which they are growing in. It intends to facilitate oral expression and encourage children to express their thought and feeling to initially the family member then the teachers and finally to their peer groups.

With fixed curricular goals, the NCF has laid forth the basis of systematic observational assessment for children where the teacher would be required to plan, gather evidence on pre-defined competencies/ learning outcomes and reflect and assess the progress in children in each age-group.

Towards holistic development of children

With a solution-oriented approach for the early childhood learning and care, the National Curriculum Framework 2022 addresses the need of the hour. Early childhood being the sensitive age for overall development needs special attention and the basis on which a holistic support mechanism to foster the growth and development of the child has been explicitly pronounced by the recent national curriculum framework. Addressing the need of the children at the foundational stage had never been a core focus of the previous frameworks or the education policies, but the recent NCF with its focus on developing the children (3-8 years of age) socially, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually scribes its mark in the educational landscape of the country. Unlike the NCF 2005 which focused on self-reliance, peace-oriented values, societal connect and well-being, the foundational framework of 2022 shifted focus from rote to the experiential learning and from learners in general to the young learners specifically. An effective implementation of the curriculum, fruitful use of pedagogies across geographies, capacity building of the teachers and the other stakeholders and a stringent quality monitoring mechanism will help in achieving the goal of holistic development of the children who in turn would be responsible citizens of tomorrow’s India!

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