Age of school admission will remain five this year: Minister

The age of school admission will remain five years this academic year, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said. Referring to the ambiguity over the minimum age of admission, the Minister said there was some disparity in the admission age, with some schools admitting students to Class 1 at age six. Kerala had been admitting students to Class 1 at five years. This would continue this year. The government would bring clarity in the matter on the basis of the Khader committee report in the next academic year, he said. The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has set the minimum age requirement of six years as on March 31 this year for admission to Class 1 in the 2022-23 academic year. About students being turned away by Kendriya Vidyalayas at the time of admission because they did not meet the prescribed age criteria, Director of General Education Jeevan Babu K. said cases regarding the matter were being heard in courts, and the government would take a decision on the basis of the verdict on them. Officials say any shift to six years cannot be implemented in one go in State schools as there will be no students taking admission to Class 1 owing to ineligibility. This will also led to absence of a Class 2 batch the next year, Class 3 the year after that, and so on for the next 10 years. This is a systemic issue, they say. The KVS decision to set the admission age at six is in conformity with the National Education Policy (NEP), as per the admission guidelines for the coming academic year. The NEP lays out a five-year structure for the foundational stage, with three years of anganwadi or pre-school beginning age three followed by two years of primary classes. However, the State government had, a decade ago, ordered that for the sake of parity and uniformity the age of admission to all schools in the State be fixed at five years. No new notification regarding the change in age has been issued.