Parents must to first see that their child is fit for school, mentally and physically

School admission time is crisis time in India. The one question that we hear year after year is what is the minimum age for admission to class one. This year, the controversy is over the Kendriya Vidyalayas fixing six years as the minimum age for admission instead of five. Several parents protested against the change that was announced close to the admission process and moved the courts. Hearing the petition, the Supreme Court wondered why the parents are “in a kind of rush” to send children to schools. The two-judge bench said: “Parents want to start as soon as their children are two years old. This may not be conducive to their psychological health.” The judges had some advice for the parents: “Don’t push the child too much. It may impact his ability to grasp and read. There could be psychological impact.” Before tempers flay and rights from freedom to privacy are raised, one should take stock of the situation first. Children are pushed into the education system the moment they can stand on their feet and utter a few words. They go through the grind in creches, montessoris, kindergartens, waldorfs to be ready to enter class one by the time they are five. Given the kind of system we have in our schools, are we sure that these tiny tots are ready to take on the mental challenge? There is no way of assessing the stress levels of the first grader because every school has its own method of teaching.

There is no system to monitor the quality of the teachers and their methods. You will be surprised that some schools teach tables in in UKG and class one. It is only in a few private schools with liberal thoughts, and, importantly, liberal grants, that teaching the first graders centers around their personality development. In these schools the students do not stare at a black board when entering the class. Rote is not the rule. They are given time and space to feel their way around their environment, form relationships, and learn while playing. Many other schools are only now beginning to give up the rote system and humanising primary school education. These changes are welcome, but the question remains. What is the correct age to for class one? Five or six? There is no uniformity even abroad, with children being admitted between ages of five and seven. But their systems are much more evolved. We are still debating which is a better medium of instruction - English or mother tongue. More than the minimum age, the parents must be encouraged to first see that their child is ready for school, mentally and physically, instead of joining the race for admissions. There are umpteen number of cases where parents plead with schools to admit even underage children as they fear that the latter may lose out on one year. Enrolling children not ready for schooling will only make life difficult for them.