Early childhood care and education (ECCE), as defined by UNESCO, is the “holistic development of a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to build a solid and broad foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing.”

Early childhood is a period of tremendous brain development. An astonishing amount of human brain development takes place during a short period of time during child development. There are evidences from neuroscience that shows that over 85% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs prior to the age of 6. Because a child learns an incredible number of skills he/she’ll need to function throughout the rest of his/her life during this period of development, preschool teaching interventions can contribute immensely to a child’s social, emotional, and physical development. This can be made possible by an effective program like Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

ECCE refers to care( health, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, protection) and education (Early stimulation, education, guidance, developmental activities) provided to young children aged 0-8. 

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) makes a positive contribution to children’s long term development and learning by facilitating an enabling and stimulating environment in these foundation stages of lifelong learning. It requires that young children be provided opportunities and experiences that lead to their all-round development.
The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) has laid importance on the universalisation of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) with a 2030 target to ensure that all students entering Grade 1 are school ready.
For the effective implementation of NEP 2020, SCERTs have been tasked with multiple responsibilities. One of those responsibilities was to develop a Position Paper on ECCE, highlighting the present status, issues, challenges and enablers of ECCE in the State (Task No. 83). A State Position Paper was developed by the State Focus Group – ECCE FLN at SCERT Himachal Pradesh and submitted successfully on Tech Platform.
Coordinator and District-wise Coordinators Team


Sr. No. Name Designation
1 Smt. Ranjana Kumari  Coordinator
2 Smt. Sarika Member
3 Smt. Ritu Puri Member
4 Smt. Seema Sharma Member
5 Smt. Monika Sharma Dealing Assistant