Role of ICDS in early childhood education: An overview in Murshidabad District

Education is a life-long process. It starts in the mother‘s womb and ends at death. After birth, a child‘s early exposure to educational experiences can have a long-lasting effect on its future competence and achievement. It is during the early years that children develop cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills that they need to succeed in later life. Deficit in these areas of development can have long-term implications for the child, often affecting its ability to respond to the challenges provided later in the educational process. The educational provision for early childhood education (ECE) up to five or six years of age has received support from a wide range of research findings. ECE generally refers to the educational programmes for children, which are deliberately designed to stimulate their age-appropriate development and make them primary school-ready. The earliest formal documentation of ECE as an organized initiative in India dates back only to the first half of the 20th century. Over the past half century, India has been able to put together a fairly supportive policy framework in the field of ECE and has launched some major initiatives in this respect, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) being the most effective one. This paper sheds light on the importance of ECE, the role of ICDS in this respect, especially in Murshidabad district, major issues and concern regarding smooth functioning of ICDS in the arena of pre-school education, and some suggestions to get over the lacunae prevalent in the present practice.