Volume 13 : Issue 13.1 (2026)

Gijubhai Badheka’s Contribution to Children’s Songs: An Educational Perspective

Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939) is widely regarded as a pioneer of child-centred education in India. While his contributions to pedagogy, teacher training, and early childhood institutions have been extensively discussed, his role in the collection, composition, and pedagogic use of children’s songs remains comparatively underexplored. The present paper examines how Badheka employed songs and rhymes as curricular and cultural tools to nurture language development, rhythmic sense, memory, moral values, and social awareness among young learners. Drawing upon Badheka’s writings, institutional practices at Bal Mandir and Dakshinamurti, and secondary scholarly literature, this qualitative historical study highlights the integration of folk traditions and mother-tongue instruction in early childhood education. The paper further situates Badheka’s song-based pedagogy within the framework of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, demonstrating its continued relevance to play-based, experiential, and culturally responsive education. The study concludes that children’s songs were not peripheral but central to Badheka’s holistic educational vision and continue to offer valuable insights for contemporary Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). (Joshi & Patel, 2024) (Sharma, 2023) (Ministry of Education, Government of India, 2020)

Gijubhai Badheka, Children’s Songs, Early Childhood Education, Folk Rhymes, NEP 2020 (Ministry of Education, Government of India, 2020)

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