Centre issues guidelines to co-locate Anganwadis with primary schools

The policy, a joint initiative of ministry of women and child development as well as the ministry of education, will affect the lives of over 4.3 crore children between the age of three and six, said union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

New Delhi: In a move that might have wide ramifications for primary education across government schools, the Centre on Wednesday announced that all anganwadi centres will gradually move to primary schools.

The policy, a joint initiative by ministry of women and child development as well as the ministry of education, will affect the lives of over 4.3 crore children between the age of three and six, said union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

There are over 14 lakh anganwadi centres as well as 9.16 lakh schools with grade 1. Till now, around 2.9 lakh anganwadis have co-located. Of the 36 states the Centre sent directives to, officials said that 31 states have accepted the change.

The guidelines say that existing anganwadis should move to nearby primary schools with grade 1, and those that do not have their own buildings and are operating from rented premises should prioritise the move.

Anganwadis that have more marginalised children should also proritise the move and they should make a move to schools that do not have an existing bal-vatika or pre-primary structure.

Anganwadis that cannot make the move should be mapped by the states, the guidelines suggest. The guidelines also say that in urban areas, the anganwadi should relocate to a maximum of 1 kilometres in rural areas and 500 metres in rural areas.

To ensure there is not much disruption, the existing command structure in both the school and the anganwadi centres will be left untouched, a senior education ministry official said. “We have also asked that separate entry and exit should be given to the anganwadi,” the official said.

Explaining the scope of the programme, Pradhan added the institutional framework of anganwadis, which has the involvements of the WCD, health as well as education ministries, touches upon the lives of 11 crore people.

“Today, there are 1.25 crore pregnant and lactating mothers, and 4.25 crore children below the age of 3 years approximately. We also have over 70% birth registrations across the country. Then there are over 4.3 crore children in the age group of 3 to 6 years that go to over 14 lakh anganwadi centres. Students that are in the 2.9 lakh schools where anganwadis are located as well as the students who were supposed to join schools at the age of 6 as per NEP but joined at age 5, account for 1.20 crore. In addition to that, approximately 1 crore children go to private schools and play schools. This adds up to over 11 crore,” Pradhan said.

“Now if we look at the rate of population growth year on year, the projected number for children below the age of 6 years should be 16 crore. This is a number extrapolated by experts,” Pradhan said.

Pradhan said that there has been a “misinformation” spread that these anganwadi centres will be taken over the education ministries, but that both ministries were clear that they had a duty towards the children.

WCD minister Annapurna Devi said that countries like Finland, Canada and Australia have benefitted from focussing on ECCE. “The SDG4 goals of the UNICEF also stresses on ECCE. By this change, we will be moving towards that direction,” she said.

Sanjay Kumar, secretary of the department of school education, said that the GER and the NER should ideally be same. “The NEP 2020 recommends that a child should be 6 years of age if they reach class 1. Whether the child comes from a pre-primary school or an anganwadi, we want them to have the same level of education,” Kumar said.