interlinkage with all aspects of health—physical, social, and emotional, as well as with the growth of cognitive abilities, also stresses that compromising on any of these aspects necessarily impacts on the rest. 2.3 Issues related to quality of education The typical perception of the "access" issue in education has chiefly been about the scarcity of school infrastructure and the inadequate availability of educational facilities. However, new research, including NAS surveys conducted recently, indicate issues that include more internal or micro-features that are directly related to teaching and learning in the classroom and at school, as well as external or macro-factors that need to be changed to create a more enabling environment for strengthening access to education. Some of the key challenges are discussed below. 2.3.1 Access to pre-school According to NEP 2020,16 universal access to high-quality early childhood development, care, and education must be attained as soon as practicable, and no later than 2030, to guarantee that all pupils entering Grade 1 are prepared for school. There are almost 1.95 billion children between the age of 3-6 years who are enrolled in roughly 13.87 lakh Anganwadis in India. In addition, according to UDISE+ 202021, there are 1.98 lakh government and government-aided schools with pre-primary sections and 2.68 lakh government primary schools with co-located Anganwadis. However, not all children in the 3 to 6 age cohort are enrolled in any formal system. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that the brain grows rapidly until the age of 5 or 6; hence, it is crucial to expose young children to high-quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). As per UDISE 2021-22, 53.32 per cent of children joining primary schools have pre-school experience. This area has been dealt with in a scientific fashion by NEP 2020. The policy has recommended a three-month school readiness related intervention to be delivered to all fresh entrants in Grade 1. To implement this, the NCERT has come out with ‘Vidya Pravesh’,17 a 3-monthplay based School Preparation Module in 2021, which has now been implemented across all states and UTs in the country. 2.3.2 Gaps in foundational skills FLN stands for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, and it is the capacity to read and comprehend simple texts, write clearly, and carry out elementary addition and subtraction operations even in everyday conditions. NEP 2020 places the utmost focus on acquiring fundamental literacy and numeracy abilities. As discussed earlier, about 39 per cent and 43 per cent of students were found proficient in literacy and numeracy skills, respectively, in Grade 3 in the National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted in 2021. Not acquiring these skills at early Grades makes children unlikely to succeed in later Grades, or achieve their full potential. In later Grades, when all subjects require students to be able to 'read to learn', the lack of 16 17 National Education Policy 2020, op cit, page 2 Vidya Pravesh, NCERT, https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/vidyapravesh.pdf. 48 Journal of the National Human Rights Commission, Vol. 22, 2023