Samyukta Subramanian (Pratham Education Foundation) and Nisha Vernekar (Inclusive Education, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy) discuss how the NEP re-imagines early childhood education (ECE), the unique and powerful role of Anganwadis in communities, the importance of “age-appropriate” learning assessments for young children, and NEP’s approach to inclusion in ECE with a special focus on gender.

About the speaker: Samyukta Subramanian leads early childhood education (ECE) and early grades programs across many Indian states and has extensive experience working with government officials, private sector partners, and non-profit leaders to develop and implement education initiatives. Her focus has been on India’s pre-primary education landscape and improving ECE outcomes at scale.

Recently, as an Echidna Global Scholar (2019) at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, her paper focused on India’s policy on early childhood education: Lessons for a gender-transformative early childhood in India. After graduating in Psychology from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Samyukta went on to do her Masters in Psychology and Bachelor’s in law from University of Delhi. She joined Pratham in 2008. The Kotak-Karma Vidhi Inclusive Education Programme aims to identify barriers to inclusive education in primary and secondary schooling by highlighting legal and policy gaps.

Through our quarterly newsletter, ‘Towards Inclusive Education’ we hope to bring together voices of those contributing to this space, and open a dialogue on how we can move towards schooling that is inclusive of all children. If you’d like to access our complete newsletter please reach out to me at nisha.vernekar@vidhilegalpolicy.in.