Come admission season, the school gates see an increased flurry of activity. Young enthusiastic parents start lining up for the first admission form for their 2+ year olds for admission into Nursery in the forthcoming year. As they read through the form they come to the section specifying the cut-off age and the cut-off date.
That’s when we hear this plaintive cry from many parents whose children are born in the month of May or thereafter –
“Oh no…so we have to wait for one more year? But my child will lose a year!”
As a society, we are quite comfortable with the pace at which a new born develops from birth till 2+yrs. Parents aren’t really concerned about developmental milestones occurring in sync with the parameters prescribed in parenting textbooks or as advised on the internet. If our child turns over a month later than the same aged toddler next door, its ok; or if the neighbour’s baby utters her first few words a little late or in the case of a toddler taking his first steps as late as at 18 months… that is ok!
“Bahut chhota hai…theek hai, aa jayega” / “He is still small…it’s alright, he’ll learn soon enough.”
Parents are deliberately patient, waiting, hopeful and ‘cool’ about it all – generally letting their toddlers achieve the milestones as time, experience and development do their magic. And rightly so. Each child is different and while there are globally accepted benchmarks for achievement of developmental milestones, even a non-medical / non-ECCE person or non-educator knows that each child develops the basic milestones at his/her own pace.
However, there IS a minimum age milestone for introducing the little ones to ‘formal schooling’ – an environment that is not home (no matter how ‘homely’ schools design their learning spaces). It is an environment that places the child away from familiar faces, people, environment, clothes, food, friends, pets, toys, rooms and so many safety assuring factors.
Even the recent NEP 2020, in paving the way for restructuring of the 10+2 system of education, has defined a new pedagogical and curricular restructuring of 5+3+3+4. That is – 5 (kindergarten to Grade 2) + 3(grades 3 to 5) + 3(grades 6 to 8) + 4(Grades 9 to 12), spanning the ages 3yrs to18yrs. This means, that when the child starts attending school from Nursery in the month of April of the admission year, the child must have completed 3 yrs by 1st April (or at the latest, by 30th April). Children born in May, June, July or thereafter, must wait to join Nursery in the next academic year.
For the Children, it’s a blessing in disguise – 11 months (or thereabouts) of free play and self-discovery at home in the familiar setting with a doting caregiver (be it parent or a day care attendant or even a domestic help at home). For the Parents, it (strangely) becomes a nightmare! A cause for the concern.
Why the anxiety about the age of admission to formal schooling?
The same ‘cool’ parents, who made no attempt to learn accelerating strategies to help the baby overcome any previous developmental delays; nor showed any signs of worry about it earlier ….. NOW, suddenly feel that keeping the child at home for another year or so will be ‘detrimental’ for their child’s growth, and that the child will “lose a year.”
When did we decide that not sending a child to school till 3+ yrs was “holding them back?” Where did this idea come from? When did it become ‘normal’ or “ideal” to send a child to formal structured school at 2+ years of age?
When it comes to educational outcomes, we only have to look at some of the most successful countries in the world to see that sending a child to school when they are just 2+ yrs is not ideal. In fact, some go even further to argue that we shouldn’t be sending them to formal schooling at all, until they are closer to six or seven years of age!
One cannot accelerate certain developmental milestones – which are a combination of gross motor, fine motor, brain development, social and emotional development, self-management skills, among many other growth aspects.
Even in the most ‘well-planned’ Kindergarten schools, the curriculum is structured. Children are not in a wholesome play-based environment, learning through self-exploration nor at their own pace. They are in a formal education and it is fast paced, due to the fixed timings, curriculum and availability of resources and resource persons! More importantly, the consequence of a structured curriculum is that there is less opportunity for unstructured free-play. Compared with their older peers, for the youngest school starters this could represent nearly twelve months of reduced play-time and play-based learning opportunities.
PLAY is very important in the early childhood years. As grown-ups, we may not see the significance of this or even remember how much fun it was in our childhood years, but the value of play in the early years should not be disregarded.
Play-based learning allows the little ones to :
- learn to problem solve
- develop language skills
- build their social & independence skills
- build their emotional skills
- use their imagination and explorative contexts
- introduce and develop reading and writing ability
- introduce and develop mathematics ability
- build fine and gross motor skills
In short, Play provides time to develop, physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually – a factor that is crucial for creating the sound, happy, foundation required for formal schooling and cannot be rushed or accelerated artificially.
SO why do we feel that we need to send them to school as soon as we can? Yes, your child might be ready and they might “cope” with it, but think of how much more ready they will be with another year of play under their belt! Imagine how much more confident, settled and ready they will be to begin their schooling.
Maybe the rush comes from us adults? Maybe we are so excited and proud that our children are growing up, they seem so aware of the world, and speaking so many words….that we want to send them to school as soon as they qualify. For many families, there are also availability constraints where both parents work at home OR even financial considerations, but I would encourage them to give some thought to this important stage of a child’s life.
Toddlers are only little once! And this is such a vital time for them to learn, grow and play at their own pace. School will still be there next year. Even if they are ready this year, they are still going to be ready next year and, more than ever, are going to be hungry and better equipped for learning.
We need to let our kids be kids. They are about to embark on a minimum 15-year journey of formal education, so why are we rushing it?
And here’s a signing off message – NO CHILD really loses a year when they enter schooling at the developmentally recommended age.
