Umamaheswara Rao Jaggena

• Early childhood curriculum frameworks
• Learner assessment frameworks
• Play and play based pedagogy
• Programme planning and management in early years

Umamaheswara Rao Jaggena is a faculty at the School of Education, Azim Premji University, where he teaches in the Master’s and Diploma programmes in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). With over 18 years of experience in education, he brings deep expertise in early childhood curriculum design, assessment systems, and teaching professional development.

He joined the Azim Premji Foundation in 2007 and was part of the Andhra Pradesh Randomized Evaluation Study (APRESt), a longitudinal policy research initiative with the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He later led the Foundation’s Early Childhood Education initiative in Sangareddy, Telangana, designing strategic state-level programmes and working closely with Women & Child Development (WCD), ICDS, and Education Departments across Telangana, Karnataka, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.

He contributed to the drafting of the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (NCF-FS 2024) and led the development of Jaadui Pitara, a national teaching – learning resource kit. He also contributed to the comprehensive reform of Puducherry’s government ECCE programme, including curriculum frameworks, teacher handbooks, children’s activity books, professional development systems, and the design of cost-effective play- and toy-based resource rooms in Primary schools in Pudhucherry. He led field research and co-developed the Early Learning Assessment (ELA) Tool in collaboration with Azim Premji University, contributing to standardised early childhood assessment modules and kits.

He holds a master’s degree in Zoology from Acharya Nagarjuna University and a master’s in education from the Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Mysore.