Early Childhood Care & Education in the NEP 2020 with Kamal Gaur

Last month, the Union Government approved the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Since then, many prominent personalities have spoken about its potential for transforming India’s education sector. The vision for 2040 outlines many new interventions including that of Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) across anganwadis, syllabi, caregivers and private schools. However, as previous education reforms have shown, the devil lies in the implementation of the policy. This isn’t surprising since education relies on a vast network of stakeholders including State Governments, anganwadis, teachers, parents and much more. In this light, can the NEP successfully implement positive changes in Early Childhood Care & Education in India? And how? To understand this further, Chirag Chinnappa speaks to Kamal Gaur, the Deputy Programme Director (Education) at Save The Children, India. In specific, she explores the following questions:

1. What are the changes in the NEP that will be implemented regarding ECCE?

2. What is the strengthened network for implementing ECCE? How does it work?

3. Who are the stakeholders?