Centre releases curriculum framework for anganwadis

• National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education 2024 titled ‘Aadharshila’ was released by Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).

Highlights:

• The Union government has released this curriculum to teach children aged three to six years.
• The focus of the curriculum circles around pre-school learning in 14 lakh Anganwadis across the country.
• A longitudinal research of 42000 Indian children up to primary grades for about five years indicated that
  • Children who have received early childhood education are expected to do much better in school and are psychosocially better adapted in comparison to those who did not receive any formal education before six years of age.
• Children are going up school ladder without learning to read and write which may hamper achieving age-appropriate learning levels like math and language skills

Aadharshila:

• The curriculum includes a mix of academic and extracurricular activities like storytelling, arts and crafts, exploring, free play, conversation etc.
• This curriculum will give an impetus to pre-school learning in children aged three to six
• The curriculum will help children to easily transition into Grade 1 by developing skills.
• This framework will serve as a base for States to develop their own culturally appropriate curriculums seen as a solution to tackle challenges of children.

Prelims Takeaway:

• Aadharshila
• Anganwadis