Early Childhood Care & Education

Improving age-appropriate child development outcomes.

Early childhood care and education are key to a child’s development in the early years. Over 85% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs prior to the age of six (National Education Policy 2020). Children learn best during their early years through exploration, curiosity, and imaginative play. It is a world of wonder where they build connections, understanding, and a love for learning that lasts a lifetime.

In line with the National Education Policy 2020, Reliance Foundation recognises the transformative power of play-based learning during the foundational stage (3-6 years) and has, since 2022, aimed to make this a common trend in India’s early education system by establishing the Early Childhood Care and Education programme.

Reliance Foundation’s Early Childhood Care and Education programme, in partnership with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Maharashtra and Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) Department in Telangana, is dedicated to strengthening early childhood education in India. By providing innovative models for capacity building, community engagement, and creating enabling environments at Anganwadis, the programme aims to lay a strong foundation for lifelong learning and development.

Creating conducive teaching-learning environment

Reliance Foundation aims to create nurturing spaces that inspire curiosity, creativity, and holistic growth for young learners, fostering a brighter and exciting learning experience through a network of Anganwadi Learning Labs (AWLLs) and State ECCE Resource Labs (SERLs) in Maharashtra and Telangana.

These nurturing environments also provide every child with an equal opportunity to thrive and grow, by equipping the AWLLs as demonstration, training, and innovation spaces.

Reliance Foundation is investing in the redevelopment of AWLLs through the upgradation of the kitchen and store areas with access to purified drinking water, a play area for children, play equipment such as swings and slides, nutrition garden, educational toys and teaching aids including a smart TV, laptop, child-friendly WASH facilities and furniture. The Anganwadis that are re-developed also incorporate educational paintings (BaLA) and Murals inspired by local art forms, culture, and heritage.

Enhancing teaching-learning environment

All Anganwadi centres have been provided with age-appropriate books in English and local languages to promote emergent literacy, aimed at providing a text-rich environment that prepares the child for school. Books, toys and teaching -learning materials like physical manipulatives, story books, flashcards, and building blocks have been provided to create a happy and engaging learning environment.

Learning corners have been set up to demonstrate and give impetus to free play. Training is provided to Anganwadi staff to encourage their creativity and usage of these TLMs in multiple ways through different age-appropriate activities in Anganwadi centres.

Building strong foundation through capacity building

Capacity building is one of the key pillars of Reliance Foundation’s ECCE programme. Training the Anganwadi staff is critical to improve classroom practices and hence, child development and learning outcomes.

Play-based learning has been emphasised in NEP 2020 and in order to have playful classrooms, we need playful practitioners. Reliance Foundation’s trainings are designed to be joyful, engaging, and interactive. Through play, there is an emphasis on language and cognitive development activities linked to foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes.

Parent and community engagement

Parents, caregivers, and community play a critical role in the development of a child, especially in the early years. Reliance Foundation ECCE programme realises this through the formation of parent groups, and the celebration of ECCE Day, School Readiness Mela, and other ECCE-related events ensuring increased ECCE knowledge among the various stakeholders, enabling learning environment at home for their children.