WITH PRE-PRIMARY SECTIONS

44 THE RIGHT START INVESTING IN EARLY YEARS OF EDUCATION

institutions are also attached to elementary schools and, as Kapoor (2006) notes, can also be exploitative due to the heavy load placed on children as a result of a downward extension of the primary curriculum. Pressure is exerted on the children to compete and perform from an early age.

While some of these are registered with state-level educational authorities, many remain unrecognised, vary in quality and it is difficult to estimate the number of such schools (CECED, n.d.). A government estimate places the number of children enrolled in private ECCE centres at around 10 million though the actual figure may vary due to their unregulated nature (Kaul and Sankar, 2009). With a lack of guidelines in their functioning, these schools are marked by inequitable access, uneven quality and growing commercialisation (NECCEP, 2013).

Some of the major private players are running pre-schools through franchise models such as Eurokids (780 branches), Kidzee (550 branches) and Treehouse, which also offer services outside of India (Ohara, 2013). It is further noted however that in 2015, 67% of the childcare industry was dominated by the unorganised sector with no government supervision. The lack of regulatory frameworks, mechanisms and the growing commercialisation of education pose serious threats to quality, curriculum, infrastructure, teacher qualifications and access. Often, the quality of education provided at such centres might be counter-productive to a child’s development, resulting in ‘miseducation’ (Kaul and Sankar, 2009).

C. NGO Services

In addition to public and private programme, NGOs provide ECCE services either by running their own models or assisting government programmes. These services usually target children from socially and economically disadvantaged settings, such as those in tribal areas, migrant workers or rural children in certain contexts (Kaul and Sankar, 2009). According to government estimates, 3 to 20 million children participate in such programmes (Kaul and Sankar, 2009). While these services have not been evaluated systematically, those attending these programmes report positive outcomes from parents, and are also more likely to go on to study in a primary school (Swaminathan 1998; as cited in Kaul and Sankar, 2009). Several of these NGO models also cater to the diverse needs of communities and tend to demonstrate more innovative and developmentally appropriate teachinglearning practices (Kaul and Sankar, 2009).

The restructured ICDS is an example of collaboration between the NGO sector and the government, wherein NGOs and voluntary groups are recognised as technical support groups for training and capacity- building of communities and ICDS staff. Under the restructured scheme, the government has also proposed to partner with civil society organizations for operating up to 10% of all ICDS projects. The vision is that these models could contribute “to innovation, component enrichment, quality improvement, extending reach to unreached areas and better responsiveness to local contexts” (Planning Commission, 2011, p.8).

Public-civil society partnerships have also been extended in providing crèche services - by converting five percent of all AWCs into AWC cum crèche centres under the restructured ICDS scheme; as well as part of the RGNCS. An example of this is the partnership between MWCD and a Delhi-based NGO, Mobile Crèches, which has been providing ECCE services to children of migrant workers at construction sites and urban slums for nearly 50 years and now acts as a technical resource for the state. Under the RGNCS, NGOs are also invited to set up and manage crèches, and 90% of the expenditure is borne by the central government in the form of grant-in-aid to the NGO.

Overall, considering the high rates of availability and participation in pre-school education, the CECED report suggests that India is well positioned to work towards developing and implementing