NEP 2019's 'excellent' early education reforms face significant challenges

Massive financial and technical resources are needed to create cadre of trained, accredited pre-school teachers -- a tough task given the humungous number of posts already lying vacant

The Draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019's proposal for strengthening early childhood care and education (ECCE) by making it an integral part of school education and bringing it under the purview of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is an excellent idea, say most experts, but the road to its success will have to be paved with difficult administrative reforms and sizeable investment in a cadre of trained teachers.      

The Draft NEP 2019 recognises that there is a severe learning crisis in India, a major part of which is occurring before children even enter Grade-1, as they