Integrated versus Split approach for better Early Childhood Care and Education in India: lessons from the field and policy implications

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) has two major components– care (child nutrition, health & physical care) and education (pre formal education). In India, for children below the age of six years, both the components are being implemented through the Department of Women and Child Development through Integrated Child Development Services. Countries like Brazil have opted for integration within education system while countries like France have taken spilt approach,which is managed by both the education and child welfare department. In the view of very less literature available on whether the split or integrated model is better for achieving early childhood care, this study has tried to explore which approach could be considered better and adopted. This study is a comparative analysis of outcomes of child development amongst three different ECCE institutions (Integrated-within-education, Integrated-within-Social Welfare and Split model ECCE) conducted in Rampur Block, Shimla District,Himachal Pradesh, India. In this study, the physical, mental, language abilities and the nutritional status of 31 children (13 children - 4 to 5 years,18 children - 5 to 6 years) were examined. As per the results of this study, the outcomes in split model of ECCE were considerably better for the younger age group while for the older age groups, both the split and integrated-within-education models were equally efficacious. Hence, the results of this study are more inclined towards adopting the split approach for ECCE. Further, placing a functional infrastructure at Anganwadi centers and need of diverse workforce in the system is encouraged for the best outcomes.