EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION WITH REFERENCE TO NEP 2020

Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) is the first step towards preparation for life .So, it must lay foundation for building personality of the future. ECCE programmes are normally designed for children from age 3 and include organized learning activities that constitute, on average, the equivalent of at least 2 hours per day and 100 days per year. Early childhood refers to the period between birth and 8 years of life. The widely used term ‘early childhood care and education' (ECCE) refers to a range of processes and mechanisms that sustain and support development during the early years of life: it encompasses education, physical, social and emotional care, intellectual stimulation, health care and nutrition. It also includes the support a family and community need to promote children's healthy development. The NEP 2020 proposes to implement uniformly, in state-run and privately-run schools, a child centred ECCE curriculum that prepares children for rigours of formal curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, and EVS in subsequent Preparatory stage. This is done by providing strong foundation of a holistic, multi-faceted discovery-based learning experience that develops all aspects of the learner's personality from cognitive to social, emotional, creative, and physical. The overall aim of ECCE will be to attain optimal outcomes in domains of physical & motor development, cognitive development; socio-emotional & ethical development; cultural/artistic dev & dev of communication & early language, literacy and numeracy. This paper discusses the ECCE with relevance to NEP 2020.