The National Education Policy hopes to restructure schooling such that students begin at age 3, rather than 5 or 6 currently. Such a policy, being debated across the world, could provide especially rural parents with much-needed daycare support, and upgrade the existing Anganwadi system
The New Education Policy (NEP) has many angles being hotly debated. The introduction of regional language in schools, allowing foreign universities to open campuses in the country and many other topics have been highly contested. However, one proposal has been missing from the discourse, and could hold a silver lining.
One of the proposals of the NEP is to restructure schooling into a 5+3+3+4 model. This implies starting formal or structured schooling early, at 3 years rather than the current 5-6 years in India. The average starting age for children across the world is a little over 6 years and it varies between 5 to 7 years.1
[This article has been published with permission from IIM Bangalore. www.iimb.ac.in Views expressed are personal.]