Emergence of Early Childhood Education in India: Journey till 1980s

The concept of formal pre-primary schooling in India came from the Western countries in the late 19th century. Till then, the indigenous Indian school was responsible for educating children in a non-formal way as decided by the teacher. Learning from the environment and using the knowledge in everyday activity was the core of such education. Families had a big part in imparting various kinds of qualities in children. Large joint families consisted of many children of the same age who would play and learn together under the supervision of parents, grandparents, older children and other relatives. The need of a formal school system for young children in the age group of 0-5 was not felt.

The Scottish and Christian missionaries established nursery and kindergarten as a part of schools in the mid-nineteenth century (Sood, 2003). Following this, the British Government attached an Infant class to primary schools to prepare 4-5 years old children for entry to Std. I. Reading, counting up to 100, reciting poems and story-telling constituted the curriculum. But the formal test at the end of the school year showed that such a formalized education system for pre-school children was not conducive to their development, as large number of children failed and dropped out.

This was the era when a number of child-development theories emerged in the Western countries which had already become aware of the shortcomings of pre-school education. Philosophers like Froebel, Piaget, Dewey and Maria Montessori revolutionized the education system which still continues to influence the educators throughout the world. Tagore, Gandhi, Aurobindo, Gijubhai Badheka, Tarabai Modak were also inspired by these philosophers and were one of the first few educationists in India who realized the importance of early childhood education. In order to understand the efforts made by them in this field, it is important to be briefly acquainted with the various child development theories and ideas about early childhood education.

Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel (1782-1852): He was a German philosopher who developed the concept of kindergarten. He was the first to apply to apply the theory of evolution to education as he believed that humans are ever-developing, self-evolving and progressing from one stage to another (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2011). He regarded preschool years as the most significant period of education since child begins to use his physical and sensory activity to show his thoughts and feelings. He was against the conventional education given at home by parents and especially mother because according to him this restricted the child’s experience. For the moral and social development of the child between three and seven years required a larger group of equal-aged children.

He believed that play enables the child to explore his abilities and develop them and for this he should be given freedom to move and act. In this system, the teacher will not interfere or restrict the children but inculcate discipline by means of love, sympathy and goodness instead of physical punishment. In 1837, the first kindergarten was established by him in Blankenburg near Keilhau.

John Dewey (1859-1952): He was an American philosopher and an educational reformer who is mainly associated with the philosophy of pragmatism. He emphasized meaningful activity in learning and participation in classroom democracy. Use of irrelevant material instead of children’s interests and their experiences was the drawback of school systems according to him. He developed the concept of experiential education where students’ past experiences would help them build knowledge and apply it in real life. In 1896, he opened the Laboratory School which was designed to test his ideas of education where students were grouped on the basis of community-interests and general intellectual capacity (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2011). He viewed the school as a social institution and thus tried to relate the curriculum to real life so that it is not isolated from life of children outside school. It constantly addressed the changing needs and interests of children and was community-oriented so that children are able to deal with new situations in their personal and social life.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980): He was a Swiss developmental psychologist mainly known for his theory of cognitive development. Out of the 4 development stages given by Piaget, the pre-operational stage between the ages two and seven are important since they are not able to reason logically but are curious about everything around them. Play becomes an important activity for them through which they learn many things. It develops qualities such as curiosity, exploration, divergent thinking, symbolic transformation, conservation, classification and perspective-taking. Piaget’s principles led educators to adopt a child-centered point of view in the development of curriculum and teaching practices (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2011).

Maria Montessori (1870-1952): She was a physician and educator born in Italy. She gave importance to each child as an individual with different abilities and thus asserted that education should guide the children in proper growth and development at their own pace. She believed that education begins at birth and the first 6 years of life are the most important years for the physical, cognitive and affective development of the child. From birth to 3 years, the sensory and motor skills develop leading to intellectual and personality development by the age of 6 years. Thus sensory training and muscular training for enabling writing, drawing, speaking, etc. are important parts of Montessori approach. Her methods were based on scientific observations of behaviour of children in an adaptable environment.

She distinguished between work and play and believed that make-believe is an escape from reality. Children are just the passive recipients of this play created by adults (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2011). In Montessori approach, the child is free to choose whatever interest him/her and do real work. In 1907, she opened The Children’s House (Casa Dei Bambini) in Rome which was unlike any other school of its time. It had large open classrooms, child size furniture and shelves for material at a height accessible to children. She devised learning games and devices called as “didactic materials”. These helped the children in developing sensory and motor skills as well as academic skills. Just like Dewey, Montessori also advocated self-activity and freedom of learning for the child.

Situation in India

As mentioned earlier, Tagore and Gandhi both were in favour of child education. Tagore believed that the school environment was an arrangement to give pre-decided lessons whereas nature is the best teacher for children under the age of 7. He said that children have a natural instinct to learn and they should be allowed to learn on their own from their natural surroundings. Tagore’s theory on education focused on individual differences and demanded that curriculum should address the needs of children. He claimed that music, art and poetry are essential to the overall development of children and thus they should be facilitated with these in the early years of school (Vittachi, Raghavan & Raj, 2007). He established Patha Bhavana, a school based on these ideals, in Shantiniketan which was later expanded to become the Vishva Bharati University.

Gandhi’s views about education of children under the age of 7 resembled those of Tagore’s. He also believed that education can be best imparted in the natural surroundings and that it should be contextualized with the child’s background. He developed the concept of Nai Taleem which was the first major initiative towards early childhood education in India. He was against the textbook culture and exam-oriented approach to education. Thus, he asserted that craft should be the centre of teaching-learning process. The local craft should be chosen so that children become self-supporting and find learning through crafts interesting. By making children independent from young age, giving instruction in mother tongue and stressing on the culture of India, feeling of strong nationalism was to be inculcated through basic education. In a speech given on 17th February, 1946, he said that a child starts learning from the time of conception itself and so he said that pregnant women should be taught as a part of adult education till the child is born (NCTE, 1998). Till 2 and half years of age, parents will be responsible for the child’s education. By that time, children are able to use their sensory and motor skills. Thus, formal pre-basic education will start at 2 and half years where children will learn through play and group activities. The education will teach them to be constructive and creative. From 4 to 7 years of age, first knowledge about history and geography of their region and dharma according to the Hindu scripts will be given to them. Then, arithmetic, multiplication tables and finally reading-writing skills will be taught. Along with craft-work, agriculture, cooking and cleaning related activities were also included in order to make the children self-sufficient.

The schools which were set up by him in Champaran, Sabarmati and Wardha followed these principles. Gandhi asserted that only a mother can fulfill all these responsibilities since she is aware of children’s abilities and limitations. Two training schools, one in Wardha and other in Segaon were established in April 1938. By the autumn of 1939, there were 247 basic schools and 14 training schools scattered over nine Provinces and States (Sykes, 1988).

By this time, Maria Montessori’s ideas had already influenced few social workers in India. Darbar Gopaldas, king of Dhasa was from Vaso in Baroda district and he had joined Gandhi’s no-cooperation movement. He focused on the development of his princely state and started provided free education to all. Motibhai Amin, a teacher from Vaso was very influenced by Montessori’s methods of teaching and thus in 1915, with the financial help of Darbar Gopaldas, he established a Montessori school at Vaso (“About Vaso”, n.d.). In 1920, Gijubhai Badheka, a High court lawyer from Bhavnagar, Gujarat opened Bal Mandir, a school in which Montessori methods were Indianized. There was considerable emphasis on “religion (Hinduism), language (Gujarati) and culture (traditional music, art, dance), along with Montessori materials and activities” (Prochner, 2002, p.441). Later, along with Nanabhai Bhatt and Harbhai Trivedi, Badheka expanded this kindergarten to Shri Dakshinamurti Vinay Mandir which is presently known as Shri Dakshinamurti Vidyarthi Bhavan. It includes a primary and secondary school and a pre-primary teacher training college.

In 1922, Tarabai Modak who was the first Indian Principal of the Barten Female College of Education at Rajkot, resigned from the post and joined Badheka as she was also inspired by Montessori’s work in pre-school education. They together established the Nutan Bal Shikshan Sangh (NBSS) which was responsible for evolution of a preschool system which devised Montessori’s principles suitable to Indian context. They also used Froebel’s methodology with Montessori’s methods and developed innovative techniques of story-telling and handicrafts making (Naik, 1978). Gijubhai had different ways of teaching history, geography, language and other subjects through stories and rhymes making it interesting for the children. They also prepared literature to make parents and teachers aware of the importance of early childhood education (Vittachi et al., 2007).

In 1936, at first she conducted a pre-school in a Scheduled-caste locality in Bombay after which she established the Shishu Vihar Mandal in Dadar which conducted pre-school centers and trained pre-school teachers. Although this popularized the child education movement in urban areas, Tarabai had realized that the poor and deprived children from rural areas were in need of pre-school education as the practices in the schools mostly reflect the middle class. Also the materials needed for the Montessori methods were very expensive for the rural setting. Even Gandhi was not in complete adoption of the Montessori approach as it was not suitable for the Indian socio-cultural milieu. His letters to Tarabai Modak and Saraladevi Sarabhai (President of NBSS) , written in 1945 show his disagreement by mentioning the above concerns and also that the teachers trained under Montessori were unable to deal with the rural children as they were not aware of the child’s background (NCTE, 1998).

In 1945, Tarabai moved to Bordi, a small coastal town about 160 kms from Bombay and established the Gram Bal Shiksha Kendra (GBSK) - Center for the Education of Rural Children. Anutai Wagh, a social worker working with the Kasturba Gandhi Trust joined Modak and they started the preschool in Bordi. The usual routine included cleaning the school compound, singing prayers, story-telling, drawing, clay-work and playing with the learning materials. But the denial of caste Hindus to send their children to mix with Harijan children in the preschool posed a problem for GBSK (“Tarabai Modak”, n.d.). The concept of Balwadi developed during this time in 1946. Two types of Balwadi- a central Balwadi which would be open for all children in the regular school hours and the angan Balwadi which was conducted in different courtyards of Bordi by the Gram-sevikas trained by the Kasturba Gandhi Trust, so that children and their parents of any caste can realize the significance of the preschool and do not get deprived of it. Modak worked in Bordi for twelve years and then shifted her entire institution to the tribal area of Kosbad in 1957 where she tried her methods on the most neglected tribal children under the Vikaswadi project. The tribal Anganwadis which cater to millions of children in India today are an extension of these angan balwadis (Naik, 1978). Thus, the contribution of Tarabai Modak, Anutai Wagh and Gijubhai Badheka among others is worth mentioning in the history of early childhood education.

In 1934, George Arundale, husband of Indian dancer Rukmini Devi, became president of the Theosophical Society, Adyar. He invited Maria Montessori to take charge of the Besant Theosophical High School. Montessori came to Adyar in 1939 and worked as a teacher at this school for three years. Rukmini Arundale also helped Montessori setup a teacher- training center at Adyar. Around the same time in 1937, Dr. V.N.Sharma and his wife Ellen Sharma founded The Children’s Garden School in Mylapore, Chennai. Similar to Bal Mandir, this preschool also integrated Froebel’s and Montessori’s methods and modified them to suit Indian context (Prochner, 2002). They provided free education, subsidized mid-day meals, health care and accommodation to poor children (“Roots”, n.d.). This was the first preschool initiative in South-India.

Role of Public Sector

Till now, I have discussed about the efforts made by the voluntary organizations and social reformers in the field of early childhood education in India. Let us take a look at the Government initiatives in this field. In 1944, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) presented a post-war educational development proposal known as the Sargent Plan. This was the first official document which recommended pre-primary schools for children of the age group 3-6 so that one in every 21 children is provided with basic education. It even gave an estimate that 32,000 Rs. Per year expenditure will be needed for this (Naik, 1965). But, there is no record after this which shows that this plan was implemented. The significant contribution of this report was that it recommendation of free and compulsory education for children of 0-14 years of age was included in the Article 45 of the Constitution.

After independence, the first government initiative for inclusion of pre-primary school in the existing primary school system as suggested by the Committee on early Childhood Education came in 1953. The Central Social Welfare board started grant-in-aid scheme for voluntary organizations. The Committee on Child Care (1963-1964) suggested that the various philosophies about child development and preschools from Western countries should be adjusted to suit the Indian society. This committee also recommended the introduction of midday meals in preschool programs. In 1964, the Kothari Commission of India recommended the establishment of state-level pre-primary education centers.

The National Policy on Children (1974) integrated the aspects of care and education in early childhood education which got reflected in the Fifth Five Year Plan in 1975 (Sood, 2003). The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) was launched with 33 pilot projects providing healthcare services to children of 0-6 years of age, pregnant and lactating mothers. The objectives of the ICDS include promotion of child and maternal health, nutrition and preschool education for children aged 3–6 (Department of Women and Child Development, 1995, cited in Prochner, 2002). In the rural and tribal areas, Anganwadis were selected as the centers for conducting the health and education programmes to give 3 month training to the Anganwadi workers. The Government of India’s Integrated Child Development Services included more than 350,000 preschool centres (Anganwadis), serving approximately 10 million children in the age group 3–6 by the year 2002 (Prochner, 2002).

The National Policy on Education (1986) emphasized early childhood care and education (ECCE). It suggested that programmes of ECCE should be focused around play and takes into account the individual differences of child. It warned against the introduction of 3 R’s at the initial stage of education. Participation of local communities in each of these programmes was encouraged. Provision of day care centers to support education of young girls who are otherwise unable to attend schools because of responsibility of siblings was recommended. After 1990, most of the programmes concerned with early childhood have focused more and more on the health and nutrition aspects along with education. These include the National Nutrition Policy (1993) which recognized children below the age of 6 as highly vulnerable, National Policy on empowerment of women (2003) which supported provision of day care facilities for children of working women, National Plan of Action for Children (2005) considered care and protection of children under the age of 3 essential for their development and integrated health and education facilities for children between the age of 3-6, Convention on the Rights of the Child (1992) by India prepared a National Charter for Children which again put stress on the nutrition, health care and education of children (NCERT, 2006). The National Curriculum Framework (2005) says:

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) requires that young children be provided care, opportunities and experiences that lead to their all-round development — physical, mental, social and emotional, and school readiness.  A holistic and integrated perspective views the health and nutritional needs of children as integrally related with their psychosocial/educational development. (NCF, 2005, p.65)

Thus, the efforts made by the Government in ensuring holistic development of children till the age of 6 have been praiseworthy. The post-independence era witnessed the shift of perspective regarding child’s development. It began with Early Childhood Education (ECE) which focused only on the education of children between the ages of 3-6, changed to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) involving the care component and is often called as Early Childhood Development (ECD) which is a more comprehensive term reflecting the overall development of child with respect to healthcare, nutrition and education (Kaul & Sankar, 2009).

Problems for ECE

In spite of all these initiatives, there are few issues which are obstacles in the complete accomplishment of the aims of Early Childhood Education. Today, we see a number of pre-schools run by private sector. These schools lure middle-class parents with well-built infrastructure, alien methods of teaching, expensive materials, etc. From the beginning of the school year, they start advertising heavily all over the place. Instead of giving importance to the core philosophy of early childhood education, they are only focused on making money out of this. Parents, who are already busy with their own work, find it an easy way out to get relieved of the responsibility of taking care of the child and quickly get trapped in the business of education. All this creates serious problems for the child as not only he/she is getting distanced from parents but also the basic right of receiving quality education in the early years.

Let us assume that the curriculum is well-designed and appropriate for the children, it is the responsibility of the teacher to transact it properly in the classroom. Although, all the policies have given emphasis to early childhood education, most of the schools do not take into account the critical role of teacher and employ unqualified teachers to reduce their expenditure. Teachers with Bachelor’s degree specialized in Early Childhood Education should be appointed after giving them pre-service training (National Research Council, 2000). They should also be prepared to deal with multicultural classrooms so that children who come from diverse backgrounds do not find it difficult to learn because of cultural differences. The inadequate number of qualified teachers in this field is mainly because of the low salary given to them. The qualified teachers in the pre-school level should also be paid on the same scale with that of elementary school teachers.

There is one more noticeable aspect in the field of early childhood education- lack of male teachers. This is not only because of the low salary offered to the teachers but also because of the stereotyping my male being incapable of caring and nurturing children as good as women. This stereotype was reinforced by Gandhi when he emphasized that only women can be the best teachers in the early years of school. We should try to get rid of this proposition by encouraging more and more number of male candidates for the pre-school teacher posts. They should not be expected to be authoritarian and less sensitive as in contrast with women who are expected to be loving, caring and sensitive to children’s needs. Only when this is done, we can be sure that children will not develop the existing prejudices for gender roles and create an open-minded society of their own.