Volume 13 : Issue 13.1 (2026)

Playing to Learn: Revisiting Gijubhai Badheka's Vision of Toy-Based

Early childhood education (age 3-8) has been extensively identified as the most sensitive phase in the cognitive, social, emotional, and linguistic development of a child. Nonetheless, much of pedagogical activity in most Indian classrooms still tends to support rote memorization and formal teaching at the expense of play-based and experiential learning. This paper brings back an original educational philosophy by Gijubhai Badheka (1885 1939), a Gujarati teacher, who had the revolutionary vision of child-centered learning, which prefigured insights into child-based learning using toys by almost a century. Based on the classic research works by Badheka, such as Divaswapna (1927/2003), Shishu Ke Saath (1934), Montessori Paddhati (1937), the article proposes that his pedagogical theory forms a strong theoretical and practical basis of Toy-Based Pedagogy (TBP) in the foundational stage. The article discusses the use of stories, dramatic play, sand, clay, and self-made learning material used by Badheka that can be compared to the modern focus on structured and unstructured play as a means of profound learning. It goes on to analyze how the Badheka principles of child-centered education would be aligned with the foundational-year play-based learning requirement of the National Education Policy 2020. The article illustrates through the thematic analysis of primary sources that toys and play materials are not the fringes accompanying the learning process but as Badheka imagined the actual grammar of intellectual and moral growth in a child. Recommendations to teacher education, curriculum design and classroom practice in the foundational level are explained.

Gijubhai Badheka, toy-based pedagogy, foundational stage, play-based learning, child centred education, Divaswapna, early childhood education, National Education Policy 2020

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