Vidhi Writes: Early Childhood Education Suffering Due to Lack of Governance
Despite the importance of Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the development and lifelong learning of children, most states in India are yet to define uniform norms and standards for its implementation.
This opinion was published in Mojo Story on January 18, 2022.
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About the Authors
Nisha is a Senior Resident Fellow and leads Vidhi's work in the area of Education. She has completed her postgraduation from SOAS, University of London with an MSc in Development Economics, and received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Symbiosis School of Economics. Prior to Vidhi, she has worked as a project coordinator and research assistant at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, London and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, respectively on multiple projects relating to early childhood and elementary education, education policy, and gender. Some of these projects include working on understanding implementation of Right to Education, Act (specifically the provision under Section 12.1.c or the “25% mandate”) in Ahmedabad, parental preferences for private schools among low-income households, and the impact of a pre-school curriculum and pedagogical intervention in angwandis in rural Odisha. She regularly writes on topics of gender and education for media outlets such as The Wire, Ideas for India and The Quint, among others.
Pooja Pandey is a Research Fellow working in the area of Education. She completed her post graduation in 2017 with a degree in Development (with a specialization in Law, Policy and Governance) from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. Prior to Vidhi, she was working with Participatory Research in Asia(PRIA) for 2.5 years and was the India coordinator for UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility of Higher Education. She was also leading PRIA’s Youth n Democracy campaign, which is a Pan India initiative to talk about youth in India and raise important conversations around identity, diversity, democracy and aspiration. She has represented the campaign at various national and international youth forums in India, South Korea and Thailand. She has also simultaneously worked on EU funded projects on Responsible Research and Innovation(RRI). Her area of interest includes Education, identity, and participatory research methodologies.
