Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) is a cornerstone of India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, particularly within Anganwadi Centers (AWCs), which serve as the foundation for Early Childhood Education (ECE) across India’s heterogeneous demographics. This qualitative case study examines MTB-MLE implementation within two AWCs using triangulated policy analysis, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that mother tongue functions as a primary language of instruction, enabling emotional connection, conceptual understanding, and active learner engagement. In the absence of formal multilingual curricula and resources, educators adopt innovative strategies such as dramatization, gestural communication, and culturally contextual content to facilitate learning. Children demonstrated high linguistic flexibility, navigating seamlessly between their mother tongue and incidental English from media exposure and play. Critically, these grassroots practices precede and operationalize NEP 2020 aspirations, revealing AWCs as sites of negotiated multilingualism where policy follows educator agency. Challenges persist, including inadequate teacher training, limited multilingual materials, and mixed community attitudes toward nondominant languages, yet educator ingenuity bridges systemic gaps. The study recommends three scalable strategies: (1) regional-language curriculum kits with translanguaging prompts; (2) cascade Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) training modules; and (3) community language mapping to advance equitable, culturally grounded early education.

This study compared the effectiveness of two reading interventions, play-based and Orton-Gillingham (OG), for second graders with difficulties in oral reading, comprehension, and reading attitude. Using a nonequivalent control group design and a pre-test–post-test approach, twenty participants were divided into two groups, each receiving one of the interventions. Pre- and post-tests assessed reading proficiency and attitude. The analysis showed no significant differences between the two groups in oral word reading (U = 43.00, Z = 0.491, p = 0.6182), comprehension (U = 46.50, Z = 0.227, p = 0.810), or attitude (U = 49.00, Z = 0.038, p = 0.970), as confirmed by the conducted Mann-Whitney U test. The findings suggest that both interventions were equally effective in improving the participants’ word reading levels, comprehension, and attitudes toward reading. However, further research with a larger sample is needed to explore potential differences and long-term effects of the play-based and OG approaches in teaching reading to primary learners with reading difficulties.

A scholarly article by authors Nila Rahmawati, I Nyoman Sudana D, and Henry Praherdhiono, Made Duananda Kartika Degeng, Abdul Rahman Prasetyo published in The International Journal of Early Childhood Learning