ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the trajectory of the discourse on young children’s educational rights in the context of India, which, like many other countries of the Global South, is experiencing the strong influence of neoliberal globalisation. The discourse on children’s rights will be discussed with reference to India’s Constitution, the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the UN’s Education For All (EFA), as well as India’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, or more commonly known as the Right to Education Act (RTE). The specific article of the UNCRC that this chapter mostly speaks to is Article 28 and the right of children to free and compulsory primary education. Children’s access to basic and quality education and school experiences with regard to policy and practice will be discussed within the frames of children’s rights discourse and the concepts of postcolonialism and neoliberal globalisation. Challenges and roadblocks to ensure children of their educational rights in India will be identified, including current directions in early childhood education; widely diverse schooling experiences; the influence of globalisation, consumerism, forces of market economy and imposition of Western progressive educational approaches on curriculum and pedagogy; and the dearth of culturally responsive and sensitive early childhood teacher preparation programmes.
