NIPCCD Takes Charge: Can They Deliver the Early Childhood Education Reform in India?

We sure hope so.

Summary: Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has entrusted NIPCCD with leading the training of Anganwadi functionaries on the newly launched Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) curriculum. This article explores the challenges and opportunities NIPCCD faces in ensuring successful large-scale training and its overall impact on improving Early Childhood Education in India.

Keywords: NIPCCD, MoWCD, ECCE, Early Childhood Education, Anganwadi Workers, Capacity Building, Train the Trainer, Master Trainers, India, Children

A new beginning

On the evening of 11th March, 2024 - the ministry of Women and Child Development announced the launch of National Curriculum on ECCE (NC-ECCE) & stimulation while handing over the mantle of training Anganwadi functionaries to?National Institute for Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD); an organisation that operates through?the hub and spoke model?with its headquarter in Delhi and 5 regional centres spread across India.

NIPCCD supports the Ministry of Women & Child Development through research, capacity building and advisory services.?This year, NIPCCD saw a budgetary?increase of 58%,?over previous year,?to?88.87?crores; signalling the growing importance of the institution in the eyes of the central ministry.

NIPCCD will lead the training of Anganwadi functionaries on the new Curriculum and Framework

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has chosen NIPCCD to train all Anganwadi functionaries (responsible for 14 Lakh AWCs in India) on the new early childhood education curriculum.?In terms of its focus on both research and capacity building, there couldn't have been a better partner for MoWCD to achieve its target objectives.?But in order for NIPCCD, the institution to support the plans of this massive exercise- the key to its success may require some degree of evolution/shift in its institutional approach.

"Shift in approach" IS Math

Math often involves tackling problems from new angles and employing different strategies. A "shift in approach" mirrors this by seeking different methods to achieve a desired outcome. Here are a few-reasons why this Math must be applied and how:

1. Managing its relationships with state governments:

• At the state level, not every director, principal secretary of Department of Women & Child Development (DoWCD) understands the importance of NIPCCD, or its work. It will have to actively inform, educate and enable state-level action to prioritise the framing, adoption of state level standards for the newly launched curriculum. Remember, the last ECCE policy?was launched in 2013 and till date a great number of states still haven't notified their own ECCE curriculum

2. Shift from research to action research

• NIPCCD's research focus might sometimes be incorrectly perceived as 'more-theoretical', 'less-practical' by state officials. NIPCCD can address this issue by incorporating "action research" which emphasises practical implementation alongside research. This requires not just a change in mindset but also strengthening NIPCCD's institutional capacity to translate research into actionable solutions.

3. Mobilise regional partners, NPOs, MSMEs across states; apart from DoWCD

• NIPCCD's past focus has been on training supervisors (lady supervisors, CDPOs, DPOs). While they have trained Anganwadi workers, the scale of 1.4 million necessitates a new approach.
• However, past data and the organisation size of NIPCCD tells us that the only plausible choice left for mass-capacity building initiative via this route is: Train the trainer model?
• Finding master trainers from within the department, especially on ECE component might not be an easy task. Therefore, outreach work from the state and NIPCCD must happen to mobilise other regional experts/ organisations on the early childhood domain

4. Re-envision, 'Train the Trainer'

The "Train the Trainer" model, in the way it's practiced, has quite a lot of limitations. We'll highlight two at the moment:

• Firstly, in the current scenario: assuming existing trainers possess true mastery will be inaccurate. Additionally, assuming that any trainer can become a master-trainer after 2/3 days of training will severely disregard the need for in-depth knowledge, active engagement, and ongoing skill development
• Secondly, variations in trainer quality, across such massive scale, will lead to inconsistent knowledge transfer and compromise the program's effectiveness

Therefore, extensive support through observation, mentoring, continuous training, and potentially technological resources is crucial to ensure consistent high-quality training delivery.

Millions of young lives hang in the balance.

The Ministry's plan to equip Anganwadi workers with digital resources through the Poshan application offers a glimmer of hope. While the Poshan app solves for 'reach', the true game-changer for impact lies in choosing the right outreach model.

This is MoWCD, NIPCCD's moment to etch their name in history. Their success determines the fate of an entire generation. Whether they eventually succeed in delivering the reform or not is secondary in this moment!

Today, we should all be working with them, rooting for them!

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Contributed by:

Seemant Dadwal