Haryana Government on Thursday constituted the State Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Council for laying the system of early childhood care and education and strengthening the foundation of ECCE programme in the State.
A spokesman of Women and Child Development Department said that a notification to this effect has been issued.
The main objective of the State ECCE Council is to embed the concept and practice for holistic and integrated development of the young children in the age group of 0-6 years with requisite quality. This would be achieved by establishing a comprehensive ECCE system and developing an integrated framework that would contribute to strengthen the foundation of ECCE programmes, said the spokesman.
He said that Women and Child Development Minister would be the Chairperson of the State General Council whereas Director, Women and Child Development Department would be its Member Secretary. The other members of the Council included Administrative Secretaries of Departments of Finance and Planning, Women and Child Development, Health, School Education and Panchayat among other departments.
The meetings of the State Council would be held annually and it would have the power to create or constitute thematic and technical committees on themes as may be considered relevant to build technical expertise and competence and to meet the emerging challenges in the field of ECCE.
The vision of the Council is to firmly establish evidence based concept and practices of early childhood care education towards holistic child development by recognising that child development is continuous and cumulative that follows a life cycle approach, said the spokesman.
While referring to the functions of the Council, he said that the Council would issue strategic directions and advisories to the Government for improving the implementation of policies and in the matter of preparation of suitable plans and programmes of Government with regard to early childhood care and education. Besides, it would lead overall planning for the State ECCE policy and delegate all ECCE activities specified under the State ECCE Policy and ensure that they are well planned, implemented and evaluated. Apart from this, the Council would also lay down guidelines to bring in equity and rational methods in ECCE service delivery and ensure optimum ECCE services for all young children.