Guidelines for Co-location of Anganwadi Centres(AWCs) with Schools released

Posted 04 Sep 2025

2 min read

Article Summary

The guidelines promote co-locating Anganwadi Centres with schools to enhance early childhood education, infrastructure use, and seamless transition, aligning with NEP 2020 objectives and current initiatives.

The guidelines launched by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Women & Child Development to align with the vision of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

NEP 2020 recognizes Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as the foundation of the learning continuum by integrating three years of pre-school into the 5+3+3+4 structure.
Objectives of Co-location
- To ensure school preparedness and smooth transition of children from Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) to Grade 1 in primary schools.
- Facilitates better utilization of infrastructure, enhances school readiness, and strengthens convergence between the education and nutrition sectors.
- Enhance learning and developmental outcomes.
Current Status: Over 14 lakh AWCs and in 9.16 lakh schools with Grade 1, 2.9 lakh AWCs are already co-located.
Recommendations:
- Co-located schools should not exceed 500 meters in urban areas and 1 km in rural areas.
- Prioritize co-location of those AWCs where most of the children belong to marginalized groups (economically weaker sections, tribal areas, and migrant families).
- Co-location may preferably be considered in schools with Grade 1 that do not have an existing Balvatika/pre-primary class.
- Co-located AWCs should have separate entry and exit gates.

Initiatives for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)

The Anganwadi services: Implemented under the Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
- It provides a comprehensive package of 6 services: Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school Non-formal Education, Nutrition and Health Education, Immunization, Health Check-ups, and Referral Services.
Pre-school Education facilities in Government Schools: Framework for Samagra Shiksha made budgetary provision for adding pre-school classes in school and strengthening of AWCs located within school premises.