– By Ann Manoj, Communications Associate
On Teacher’s Day 2025 in India, we pause to celebrate the educators who shape our journeys of learning. For most, the word “teacher” brings to mind chalkboards, lesson plans, and classrooms filled with desks.
But for nearly 10 crore children from underserved communities, learning begins in a very different setting – the Anganwadi centre. These vibrant spaces, part of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), are filled with rhymes, picture cards, and play. At the heart of each centre is the Anganwadi worker, not just a caregiver or nutrition provider, but India’s first teacher.
Neuroscientists tell us that 85 per cent of brain development occurs before age six. These years are when children gain the capacity to imagine, to persist, to collaborate, and to communicate, critical skills for life and schooling.
Recognising this truth, both the National Education Policy (2020) and the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (2022) enshrine play-based learning at the core of early childhood education. Initiatives like Aadharshila and Navchetana turn policy into practice, equipping educators with activities designed to spark curiosity, joy, and critical thinking.
Yet these frameworks truly flourish through the daily work of Anganwadi educators who breathe them into life, in context, with dedication.
Too often, Anganwadi centres are narrowly perceived as merely nutrition hubs. Yes, they deliver vital meals. But their purpose spans much wider. It is here that three to six-year-olds discover songs, stories, puzzles, and play. Educators coax shy toddlers to speak their first words in front of peers, help children count with pebbles, match colours, and walk along a line, in doing so, building the motor, social, and cognitive foundations for school readiness.
In rural areas, nearly 70% of preschoolers depend on government centres like Anganwadis as their only access to early education, making these educators the critical bridge to opportunity.
In many families, parents are themselves first-generation learners, still navigating their own relationship with education. Anganwadi educators show them how simple acts like talking, playing, and reading can nurture a child’s confidence and ability. By building trust with families and modelling these practices, they ensure that children enter school not overlooked, but prepared and eager to learn.
This role is demanding. Anganwadi educators manage classrooms often constrained by space or resources, yet they consistently demonstrate boundless creativity. Bottle caps become counting tools, songs transform into memory games, and a dusty courtyard becomes a vibrant learning ground.
In our own work alongside Anganwadi centres, we have seen how these educators creatively adapt activities, from group storytelling and rhythm games to floor-based chalk drawing, ensuring every child, regardless of background, experiences learning as an act of joy.
On this Teacher’s Day, let us widen our circle of gratitude to include those who guide children in their very first classrooms. Recognising their work with dignity, training, and support is about more than acknowledgement; it is an investment in India’s most powerful future, one where every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential.