Ministry of Women and Child Development press release · 18 March 2026 · pibtracker filter

Government adopting a whole-of-government approach to ensure convergence in the implementation of initiatives related to Early Childhood Care and Education

PRID2241723 MinistryMinistry of Women and Child Development Released18 March 2026 Reading8 min

Posted On: 18 MAR 2026 3:29PM by PIB Delhi National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 recognizes 3 years of pre-school (Balvatika) as a continuum of education in the 5+3+3+4 structure. The initial ‘5’ in restructured model is termed as Foundational Stage that consists of 3 years of pre-school (Balvatika) and 2 years of Grade-I and Grade-II. Both together cover the children of age of 3 to 8 years. It also acknowledges that children in the age group of 3 to 6 years are in Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). A 3-months play based ‘School Preparation Module and Guidelines’ named ‘ Vidya Pravesh ’ was launched on 29 th July, 2021. The objective of Vidya Pravesh programme is to promote school preparedness in all children coming to Grade-I from diverse backgrounds like Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Home and Private play schools etc. to ensure a smooth transition of children to Grade-I. This programme is being implemented across the country in the first 3 months of Grade 1. The Government is adopting a whole-of-government approach to ensure convergence in the implementation of initiatives related to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Home and Private play schools etc. cater to the pre-school part of early learning for children of 3 to 6 years. Formal schooling starts from Grade-I. In addition, guidelines for co-location of AWCs with Government primary schools were jointly issued on 3 rd September 2025 by the Department of School Education and Literacy and the Ministry of Women and Child Development to strengthen institutional linkages and facilitate a smooth transition of children from pre-school to formal schooling. This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question today. **** SS (Release ID: 2241723) Visitor Counter : 641 Read this release in: Urdu , हिन्दी Ministry of Women and Child Development Government adopting a whole-of-government approach to ensure convergence in the implementation of initiatives related to Early Childhood Care and Education Posted On: 18 MAR 2026 3:29PM by PIB Delhi National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 recognizes 3 years of pre-school (Balvatika) as a continuum of education in the 5+3+3+4 structure. The initial ‘5’ in restructured model is termed as Foundational Stage that consists of 3 years of pre-school (Balvatika) and 2 years of Grade-I and Grade-II. Both together cover the children of age of 3 to 8 years. It also acknowledges that children in the age group of 3 to 6 years are in Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). A 3-months play based ‘School Preparation Module and Guidelines’ named ‘ Vidya Pravesh ’ was launched on 29 th July, 2021. The objective of Vidya Pravesh programme is to promote school preparedness in all children coming to Grade-I from diverse backgrounds like Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Home and Private play schools etc. to ensure a smooth transition of children to Grade-I. This programme is being implemented across the country in the first 3 months of Grade 1. The Government is adopting a whole-of-government approach to ensure convergence in the implementation of initiatives related to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Home and Private play schools etc. cater to the pre-school part of early learning for children of 3 to 6 years. Formal schooling starts from Grade-I. In addition, guidelines for co-location of AWCs with Government primary schools were jointly issued on 3 rd September 2025 by the Department of School Education and Literacy and the Ministry of Women and Child Development to strengthen institutional linkages and facilitate a smooth transition of children from pre-school to formal schooling. This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question today. **** SS (Release ID: 2241723) National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 recognizes 3 years of pre-school (Balvatika) as a continuum of education in the 5+3+3+4 structure. The initial ‘5’ in restructured model is termed as Foundational Stage that consists of 3 years of pre-school (Balvatika) and 2 years of Grade-I and Grade-II. Both together cover the children of age of 3 to 8 years. It also acknowledges that children in the age group of 3 to 6 years are in Anganwadi Centres (AWCs).   A 3-months play based ‘School Preparation Module and Guidelines’ named ‘Vidya Pravesh’ was launched on 29th July, 2021. The objective of Vidya Pravesh programme is to promote school preparedness in all children coming to Grade-I from diverse backgrounds like Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Home and Private play schools etc. to ensure a smooth transition of children to Grade-I. This programme is being implemented across the country in the first 3 months of Grade 1.   The Government is adopting a whole-of-government approach to ensure convergence in the implementation of initiatives related to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Balvatika, Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), Home and Private play schools etc. cater to the pre-school part of early learning for children of 3 to 6 years. Formal schooling starts from Grade-I.   In addition, guidelines for co-location of AWCs with Government primary schools were jointly issued on 3rd September 2025 by the Department of School Education and Literacy and the Ministry of Women and Child Development to strengthen institutional linkages and facilitate a smooth transition of children from pre-school to formal schooling. This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question today. **** SS " /> var mPlayer = document.getElementById("background_music"); var mPlayAction = document.getElementById("playbutton"); var isPlaying = false; function playAudio() { mPlayer.play(); isPlaying = true; document.getElementById('stopA').style.display = "block"; document.getElementById('playA').style.display = "none"; } function pauseAudio() { mPlayer.pause(); isPlaying = false; document.getElementById('playA').style.display = "block"; document.getElementById('stopA').style.display = "none"; } //function HandleAudio() { // if (isPlaying == true) { // //Playing already Pause it // pauseAudio(); // } else { // //Play the music // playAudio(); // } //} var synth = window.speechSynthesis; function CleanHtml(html) { html = html.replace(/ /gi, ''); return html; } function stripHtml(html) { let tmp = document.createElement("DIV"); tmp.innerHTML = CleanHtml(html); return tmp.textContent || tmp.innerText || ""; } $(document).ready(function () { //for responsive tables $("table").each(function () { if (!$(this).closest(".table-responsive").length) { $(this).wrap(" "); } }); var width = $(window).width(); if (width $(document).ready(function () { var width = $(window).width(); if (width @media print { .sticky-social, .sticky-social_mb, .pull-right, #printPDF { display: none !important; } } .f_vl { padding-right: 30px; font-size: 17px; cursor: pointer; } .log_oo { // width: 20%; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; } .log_oo img { width: 150px; /*width: 100%; height: auto;*/ } .sticky-social_mb { position: fixed; bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; width: 100%; } .social_mb { list-style: none; display: flex; width: 100%; margin-bottom: -8px; } .social_mb a { padding: 8px 0px; font-size: 30px; transition: all 0.8s ease-in-out; width: 20% !important; text-align: center; } .section1 { position: relative; padding: 10px 0px; width: 100%; } .sticky-social { position: fixed; top: 20px; left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; } .social { list-style: none; } .social a li { padding: 8px 12px; font-size: 25px; transition: all 0.8s ease-in-out; } .social a li:hover { margin-right: -30px; 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border-top: 8px solid #9a2375; border-bottom: 8px solid #9a2375; border-radius: 8px; overflow: hidden; box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); animation: moveFilm 8s linear infinite; z-index: 10; } /* film sprocket holes */ .film-roll-badge::before, .film-roll-badge::after { content: ""; position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 10px; background: repeating-linear-gradient( to right, #9a2375 0px, #9a2375 10px, #fff 10px, #fff 20px ); left: 0; z-index: 2; } .film-roll-badge::before { top: -4px; } .film-roll-badge::after { bottom: -4px; } .film-roll-inner { position: relative; height: 100%; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; animation: flicker 2s infinite ease-in-out; } .countdown-text { font-size: 1.3rem; font-weight: 700; color: #fff; text-shadow: 0 0 6px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 0 0 10px #000; white-space: nowrap; } /* === Animations === */ @keyframes moveFilm { 0% { background-position: 0 0; } 100% { background-position: 120px 0; } } @keyframes flicker { 0%, 100% { opacity: 1; } 50% { opacity: 0.9; } 25% { opacity: 0.95; } 75% { opacity: 0.85; } } /* === Responsive Adjustments === */ @media (max-width: 1500px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 68%; right: 18px; /* width: 220px; */ height: 65px; font-size: 0.85rem; } .press-section { margin-top: 35px; } } @media (max-width: 992px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 52%; right: 10px; width: 200px; height: 60px; } } @media (max-width: 768px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 56%; right: 10px; width: 124px; height: 55px; } .countdown-text { font-size: 0.9rem; } } @media (max-width: 576px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 59%; right: 5px; /* width: 160px; */ height: 50px; } .countdown-text { font-size: 0.85rem; } } const festivalStart = new Date("2025-11-20T00:00:00").getTime(); const festivalEnd = new Date("2025-11-28T23:59:59").getTime(); const countdownElement = document.getElementById("countdown"); const interval = setInterval(() => { const now = new Date().getTime(); // BEFORE FESTIVAL — show days + hours left if (now = festivalStart && now el.style.width = "350px"); 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Original PIB release
pib.gov.in · PRID 2241723

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Government adopting a whole-of-government approach to ensure convergence in the implementation of initiatives related to Early Childhood Care and Education

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