Unstructured free play is disappearing from the lives of young Indian children — replaced by tuition classes, screen time, and a school day that leaves little room for the child to be the agent of their own experience. A contributing voice from teacher education | Specialist in curriculum, pedagogy, and school leadership This essay addresses […]
Most Indian school children are required to learn three languages simultaneously by Class III or IV. The linguistic evidence on when and how multiple languages should be introduced has direct implications for foundational learning. A contributing voice from child development | Specialist in education equity, school improvement, and teacher professional development This essay addresses one […]
What happens to a child in the first year of formal schooling shapes how they relate to school, learning, and themselves for years — sometimes for life. India’s Class I classrooms deserve far more attention than they receive. A contributing voice from policy analysis | Specialist in child development, wellbeing, and community engagement This essay […]
India’s network of Anganwadi Centres is remarkable in its scale. What happens inside them — the quality of interactions between workers and children — is the most important and least-monitored variable in early childhood development. A contributing voice from school practice | Specialist in curriculum, pedagogy, and school leadership This essay addresses one of the […]
The cognitive demands of making something with your hands — planning, sequencing, problem-solving, refining — are substantial and largely invisible in a school system organised around written assessment. A contributing voice from policy analysis | Specialist in education equity, school improvement, and teacher professional development This essay addresses one of the most important but under-discussed […]
Music has been on the school curriculum in India for decades. It has rarely been staffed, funded, or taken seriously. The research on what high-quality music education does for all children makes this neglect particularly costly. A contributing voice from school practice | Specialist in child development, wellbeing, and community engagement This essay addresses one […]
Children who feel they belong in their school — who feel known, safe, and valued — learn more, stay longer, and develop more fully. The conditions that produce belonging are specific and teachable. A contributing voice from educational research | Specialist in child development, wellbeing, and community engagement This essay addresses one of the most […]
In the relentless pressure to improve examination scores, physical education and free play are treated as luxuries. The science of child development says something entirely different. Dr Kavitha Subramaniam | Child development researcher specialising in physical activity and cognition This is one of the under-discussed but important challenges in Indian school education. Research and policy […]
The National Policy for Children (NPC), 1974 was adopted by the Government of India on 22 Aug 1974. This policy describes children as a supremely important asset of the nation and makes the State responsible to provide basic services to children both before and after birth, and also during their growing years and different stages […]
Vishal Jain
