Centre issues guidelines to merge Anganwadis with schools; proposes APAAR ID for children below 6 years

The Centre has issued fresh guidelines for merging Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) with the government schools having Class 1. The education ministry also proposed creating APAAR ID for children between 3-6 years of age to ensure “one-point” data tracking for pre-school beneficiaries.

Launching the guidelines titled "Guidelines for Co-location of Anganwadi Centres with Schools” Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan along with and Union minister of women and child development Annpurna Devi also proposed on preparing a special module in collaboration with NIOS to help the Anganwadi workers complete their studies till class XII.

"It is a good thing that the minimum qualification of class 12 has been kept. But I am sure many of them must also be a graduate, post-graduate. Some primary teachers may also be with PhDs. They do not come to this job by compulsion, it is by choice. I want to suggest that those who have not completed class 12, can NIOS not prepare a module, like we did for teachers? It is not compulsory but those who are interested we can help them complete their class XII. Can we do something about them?” said Pradhan.

The purpose of integrating Anganwadis in primary schools is to develop better convergence and smooth transition of children from pre-school to primary.

Space, infrastructure requirements

States and Union Territories (UTs) have been instructed to select only those schools with minimum space and adequate infrastructure facilities for co-locating Anganwadi Centres with schools.

Under the new guidelines, schools selected for the integration should have indoor classrooms, outdoor and indoor play areas, child-friendly toilets, safe drinking water, kitchens for hot cooked meals, food storage space, and separate entry and exit gates.

The ministry has stressed the need for reconciling data of children and asked the state women and child development and education departments to develop a student registry for the age group of 3-6 years to prevent duplication of beneficiaries and determine the exact target population for accurate tracking.

Speaking at the launch event, the secretary, ministry of school education and literacy, Sanjay Kumar, also proposed creating APAAR ID for children between 3-6 years.

“The WCD ministry tracks the children through POSHAN tracker and we through the UDISE plus. There is a need to make both these databases interoperable, so that we can track all children. In school education we are giving our children AAPAR Id. If we can extend this ID then our children between 3-6 years can also have them. It will be easier for them to track us. We have been in constant touch with UADAI and have requested them as well. When a child is born he/she is registered in civil registration, if UIDAI and civil registration databases can be connected a unique id can be given. This unique number can remain with the child throughout his/her life," said Kumar.

Also read ‘Some don’t even have Aadhaar’: CBSE’s APAAR ID mandate sends students scrambling before board exams

Guidelines for co-locating Anganwadis

For the ease of re-location of AWC, the regulations suggest a maximum travel distance of up to 500 metres in urban areas and up to 1 km in rural areas, ensuring ease of access for pregnant women and children. However, states and UTs have the flexibility to make decisions based on the geographical terrain and the feasibility of relocation in their specific areas, the guidelines read.

States have been instructed not to merge more than two AWCs in a single primary school.

How to merge more than 2 AWCs

In such cases where it is not possible to merge two centres, the nearest anganwadi will be co-located and all the other AWCs near the schools will be mapped. Such schools with Class 1 having more than one Anganwadi in the same area should be ready to accommodate all children joining Class 1, the guidelines stated.

The guidelines emphasise integration with Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, aiming to bring nutrition, health, and early learning to bring everything under one roof.

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India has 14.02 lakh Anganwadis

India has 14.02 lakh operational Anganwadi centres. Of the total 9.16 lakh government and government-aided schools with Class 1, around 2.91 lakh schools have already merged with the Anganwadi centres. Additionally, 2.52 lakh schools run Balvatikas or pre-primary sections and 78,393 schools have both Balvatikas and have co-located AWCs.

Curriculum aligned with NCF-FS

The guidelines also state that it is imperatives that all state level curricula be aligned with National Curriculum Framework-Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) in terms of domain, curricular goals and age appropriate competencies to ensure uniformity and quality in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

The curriculum which will be adopted by the AWC includes the recently launched “Aadharshila Curriculum” by WCD, the Jaadui Pitara as Teaching Learning Material,"Unmukh" handbook for teachers and activity book "Anand", which contains integrated worksheets to be used by children.