19-05-2025
Maharashtra to roll out new academic curriculum, Aadharshila, for over 1 lakh anganwadis
Starting in the 2025-26 academic year, Maharashtra will implement a new curriculum for early childhood education titled Aadharshila, designed in line with the National Education Policy 2020. This curriculum will apply to more than 1 lakh anganwadis catering to nearly 30 lakh children aged 3-6 years across the state.
Aimed at enhancing the foundation-stage learning to ensure the children are ready for school by the time they are six, the Aadharshila curriculum has been developed by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and adapted for Maharashtra by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
Maharashtra's school education department announced the plan on Monday in a government resolution. 'It introduces a structured, play-based approach through three levels: Aadharshila Balvatika 1, 2, and 3, aligned with children's developmental stages from ages 3 to 6. Training manuals, teaching materials, and structured guides will be distributed to Anganwadi workers and supervisors to ensure smooth execution of the academic curriculum while also focusing on its primary goals such as nutrition of children, health check-ups, immunization etc,' states the government resolution.
The decision marks a significant milestone in the integration of school education and women and child development in Maharashtra. With the launch of Aadharshila, which has age-appropriate academic outcomes of the foundational learning stage, early childhood care and education are now formally integrated into the state's school education system.
The government resolution also states that anganwadis will be geo-tagged using a mobile application developed by the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre—a process already completed for government and aided schools.
'The tagging will support better monitoring of early childhood education infrastructure in the state in order to integrate it with existing schools,' states the government resolution, which further proposes that anganwadis functioning in rented or inadequate buildings be shifted to vacant classrooms in government schools wherever feasible.
This integration of anganwadis with primary schools is intended to strengthen linkages between the two. A special emphasis on such integration will be laid on rural, tribal, and remote areas.
As Aadharshila focuses on improving children's school readiness by age six with play-based and outcome-oriented learning, anganwadi workers will have new responsibilities. They will therefore receive SCERT's in-service training to meet the new requirements, which will be academic in nature.
