India's Play-Based Reform: Why the Classroom Has Not Caught Up Yet
In most Indian preschool classrooms, learning still sounds like a chorus. The alphabet is recited in unison, numbers are chanted from one to fifty, and letters are copied line after line into notebooks. India’s education policy has now formally rejected this model.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Indian government’s national framework for education reform, places play at the centre of how children aged 3 to 8 should learn. Play-based learning in Indian preschools is therefore a government mandate and, at the same time, a minority practice.
This gap between what the policy prescribes and what classrooms deliver raises a question the sector has argued over for decades. Which approach actually produces better learners? This article examines what Indian and global research says about rote learning vs play-based learning in India, and how far the evidence settles the argument.
Why Play-Based Learning in Indian Preschools Is Now the Official Standard
India’s shift to play-based pedagogy was written into national policy, operationalised through a curriculum framework and backed by central funding. Three instruments now define what a preschool is expected to do, and each carries a different degree of authority.
NEP 2020
NEP 2020 replaced India’s old 10+2 school structure with a 5+3+3+4 model. The first five years, the Foundational Stage, cover three years of preschool plus Grades 1 and 2. NEP 2020 articulates the Foundational Stage as a single curricular and pedagogical phase comprising five years of flexible, multilevel, play and activity-based learning for children between ages 3 and 8.
NCF-FS 2022
The National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022 specifies the method. It was published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the central body for curricula and textbooks. The recommended approach includes conversations, stories, songs and rhymes, music and movement, art and craft, and indoor and outdoor games.
The NCF-FS does not reject memory. It says the ancient Indian emphasis on Smriti, or memory, has often been mistaken for rote learning. What it rejects is mechanical repetition without understanding. A product that treats every recitation as backward will misread both the policy and the parents.
Jaadui Pitara and NIPUN Bharat
Two implementation programs turn the framework into classroom material and targets:
- Jaadui Pitara, launched in 2023, is NCERT’s model kit for children aged 3 to 6. Its digital version (e-jaadui pitara) and companion play-based textbooks extend the approach through age 8. It contains items like toys, puzzles, puppets, story cards, flashcards and a teacher handbook [PIB]. This is the closest thing to an official definition of play-based learning in Indian preschools, and NCERT presents it as an exemplar for schools to adapt.
- NIPUN Bharat (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) sets the outcome targets. Launched in 2021, it aims for foundational literacy and numeracy by 2026-27, the current academic year. It includes a 3-month play-based readiness module for Grade 1 entrants, called Vidya Pravesh [PIB].
The policy direction is therefore unambiguous, funded through central schemes and time-bound. The question is whether classrooms follow it.
Rote Learning vs Play-Based India: What Happens in the Classroom
India’s preschool provision is split between a very large public welfare system and a fragmented private sector. The two run under different ministries and serve different income groups.
The Public System
Anganwadis are government-run childcare and nutrition centers under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. They sit with the Ministry of Women and Child Development rather than the Ministry of Education. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a citizen-led rural household survey run by the non-governmental organization Pratham. Its 2024 round shows Anganwadis enroll over half of all 3- and 4-year-olds. One-third of 5-year-olds attend private schools or preschools.
Anganwadi centers in Tamil Nadu usually run four hours a morning, two of them nominally for preschool education. In practice, staff constraints leave only 38 minutes a day for instruction [Ganimian, Muralidharan and Walters]. A play-based curriculum cannot be delivered in 38 minutes by a worker whose primary duties are nutrition and record-keeping.
The Private System
The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) is the Ministry of Education’s national school census. Its 2025-26 edition is the first to report on the NEP stage structure. The public school system has no dedicated and universal pre-primary offering of its own. Private preschools and private-school pre-primary sections therefore operate in a largely uncontested market [Education for All in India].
Rural households are moving toward this private option. In 2024, 37.5% of 5-year-olds attended a private school or preschool, up from 30.8% in 2022 [ASER 2024]. The private preschool market is valued at $4.78 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $8.56 billion by 2031 [TechSci Research].
Spending does not buy the framework’s pedagogy. FSG, a US consultancy, finds only one in five Grade 1 children in affordable private schools can read three-letter words.
The table below sets the framework’s expectations against what the government’s own documents and field research describe in practice:
| Dimension | NCF-FS 2022 expectation | Documented practice |
| Method | Play, stories, games, materials | Formal teaching and rote memorisation common in private preschools [IECEI Study; FSG Case Study] |
| Instructional time | Sustained daily play-based engagement | 38 minutes per day in Tamil Nadu Anganwadis [Ganimian, Muralidharan and Walters] |
| Teacher preparation | Trained early childhood educators | Over 50% of pre-primary teachers lacked professional qualifications in 2024-25 [PRS Legislative Research] |
| Language | Child’s home language | English-medium instruction is a primary reason parents choose private preschools [FSG Case Study] |
The private sector is where international brands operate. It is also where the rote learning vs play-based India debate is most acute. Parents are paying for the pedagogy the framework discourages.
Rote Learning vs Play-Based in India: What the Research Reveals
Much of what is written about play-based learning comes from the providers selling it. Independent evidence is less, but three Indian studies stand out. They measure different things, so they are best read side by side.
Global Evidence on Guided Play
The most substantial synthesis on this question to date is a 2022 meta-analysis in the journal Child Development by researchers at the University of Cambridge. It found that guided play had a greater positive effect than direct instruction on early maths skills, shape knowledge and task switching.
Two caveats matter here:
- First, the finding is about guided play, with an adult structuring the activity toward a learning goal, not free play.
- Second, the study populations were predominantly White, African American, and Hispanic, so the effect sizes are not transferable to Indian classrooms without local validation.
The India Early Childhood Education Impact (IECEI) Study
The IECEI Study was conducted by ASER Centre, the research arm of Pratham, with the Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development at Ambedkar University Delhi, and published by UNICEF in 2017. The study followed 14,000 children from age 4 to age 8 across Rajasthan, Assam and Telangana. It remains the only large-scale longitudinal study of preschool participation and school readiness in India:
- Private preschools ran a scaled-down version of primary school. Children were taught reading, writing and arithmetic formally, with little time for play. Anganwadis sat at the other extreme, functioning mainly as nutrition and daycare centers with little structured learning of any kind.
- Children who attended programs with higher developmentally appropriate scores, meaning more play and activity-led teaching, entered Grade 1 with stronger school readiness. This readiness carried through to better language and mathematics results in the early grades.
The Tamil Nadu Anganwadi Trial (Ganimian, Muralidharan and Walters)
This is one of the few randomized evaluations of what changes outcomes in India’s public preschool provision, and the largest to test Anganwadi staffing directly. Economists Alejandro Ganimian, Karthik Muralidharan and Christopher Walters ran a randomized evaluation with the Government of Tamil Nadu. It covered 4,675 children in 320 Anganwadi centers. Three results from the assessments are important:
- Adding a half-time education-focused worker to each center effectively doubled net preschool instructional time.
- Children in treated centers recorded higher math and language test scores than a control group.
- The curriculum was not replaced. The gain came from more adult instructional time, which makes delivery capacity the binding constraint.
FSG’s Program to Improve Private Early Education (PIPE)
PIPE is FSG’s initiative to replace rote teaching with activity-based learning in affordable private schools. These charge below roughly $356 (about ₹30,000) a year. Its assessment tests whether structured play can be delivered in the low-fee segment that dominates urban enrollment:
- FSG assessed 58 affordable private schools. It compared those using activity-based partner solutions against schools with no external intervention.
- Schools using activity-based solutions scored 54% higher than control schools across classroom environment, learning outcomes, and stakeholder interviews.
- The assessment is a dipstick comparison rather than a randomized trial. It shows feasibility and direction of effect, not a causal estimate.
Read together, these studies conclude that quality of interaction and quantity of instructional time drive outcomes. The Tamil Nadu trial improved scores by adding a person, not by changing the curriculum. The IECEI study found that participation alone was insufficient without developmentally appropriate practice. FSG’s work shows that structured activity-based programs can be delivered in low-fee private schools when the school owner is supported.
Why Rote Persists: The Demand-Side Problem
If the framework requires play and the evidence supports it, the persistence of rote teaching needs an explanation. The research points to parental demand and teacher constraints rather than ignorance of the policy.
Parents Assess Learning Through Recitation
FSG’s foundational survey (2018) remains the largest sample of low-income urban parental preferences on this specific question. A survey of 4,407 low-income families in urban India found that 95% send their children to preschool and mostly affordable private preschools. Also, parents use and value rote-based methods such as reciting poems to assess their children’s learning, though these methods fail to measure conceptual understanding.
FSG’s interviews with affordable private school teachers found they believe traditional curricula are more effective than activity-based ones. They cannot address parent complaints about activity-based learning because parents value rote methods.
Teachers Are Not Trained for the Alternative
The workforce constraint compounds the demand problem. More than 50% of pre-primary teachers lacked professional qualifications in 2024-25 [PRS Legislative Research]. The NCF-FS itself notes that the number of teacher education institutions preparing preschool teachers is extremely low, with the North-Eastern states having none. Rote instruction is the default not because teachers prefer it but because it is the only method many have been shown.
What This Means for Providers of Play-Based Learning in Indian Preschools
For international curriculum, franchise and teacher training brands, the research points to specific product decisions. The gap between policy and classroom practice creates the opening. The demand-side and workforce constraints above decide what can be sold, and to whom.
Parent-Facing Assessment Tools
Indian parents judge a preschool by what the child can demonstrate at home. FSG’s work on parent-facing markers is instructive here. One marker tests whether a child understands the cardinal value of a number, rather than reciting it. Conceptual learning has to be made visible. A curriculum product should therefore include simple at-home checks that replace recitation as proof of progress.
Teacher Training Bundled With Curriculum
The Tamil Nadu trial and the IECEI study point to the same conclusion. Adult capability and instructional time determine outcomes, not materials. A curriculum licensed to an Indian operator without structured educator training will likely be delivered as rote teaching. Brands should price and package training as part of the core product.
Structured Memory Work Within Guided Play
The NCF-FS explicitly values deliberate practice and recall. The Cambridge meta-analysis supports guided play over free play. A model that includes structured memory activities within a play-based framework aligns with both. This makes it easier to sell than a product positioned against memorisation altogether.
Realistic Assumptions For The Public System
Any business-to-government proposition for Anganwadis has to work within the instructional time that exists. The Tamil Nadu evidence shows roughly 38 minutes a day. Content built for a 3-hour play-based morning cannot be deployed there on its own. It needs a staffing component alongside it.
Play-Based Learning in Indian Preschools: The Realistic Assessment
The research does not show that play-based learning has won in India. It shows that policy has adopted it. The best available evidence favors guided play on several early outcomes. Most classrooms, public and private, have not yet changed. For an international brand, this combination is a market opening with a clearly defined obstacle. The obstacle is parental demand for visible rote achievement and a workforce untrained in the alternative.
India Market Entry (IME) works with international early years brands on pedagogy localisation, partner selection and state-level entry planning. Each of these accounts for the realities set out above.
References:
- https://ncfse.frappe.cloud/home/chapter-1-learning-in-thefoundational-stage
- https://asercentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ASER-2024-National-findings.pdf
- https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/report2026/static/media/UDISE+2025_26_Booklet_nep.94ceae1e8c2210549d21.pdf
- https://educationforallinindia.com/private-schools-cross-the-40-enrolment-mark-the-government-to-private-shift-in-udise-2025-26/
- https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdev.13730
- https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/hiring-additional-instructors-childcare-centers-india-improved-learning-and-nutrition
- https://asercentre.org/researches/india-early-childhood-education-impact-study/
- https://www.fsg.org/initiatives-programs/program-to-improve-private-early-education-pipe/
- https://www.fsg.org/initiatives-programs/program-to-improve-private-early-education-pipe/preschool-assessment/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29791736/
- https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1732830®=48&lang=2
- https://www.techsciresearch.com/report/india-preschool-child-care-market/1516.html
