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Direct entry to Class I for 4-year-olds
September 16, 2007
New Delhi: Nursery rhyme over, it's time for Class I from the age
of five. And four year olds, who are studying in preprimary classes
now, can start packing their bags for formal school. They will be
directly promoted to Class I next year as the Delhi
government is all set to send a notification to private unaided
schools, asking them to admit kids who meet the age criteria of five
years, as on March 31, 2008, to Class I.
Confirming this, state education
secretary Rina Ray said: "Four year olds, who are studying in nursery,
can be directly promoted to Class I next year if they turn five by
March 31, 2008. Schools shouldn't reject applications of five year
olds for Class I, even if they haven't studied in KG. They should
make arrangements to ensure that the lessons are bridged and kids
do not face any problem studying in Class I directly after nursery.''
Age confusion
There was a lot of confusion over the age criteria last year. All
city private schools used to follow the Delhi School Education Act
- which put the cut-off date for Class I as September 30 - and regarded
the right age to study in Class I as five. Consequently, the right
age for nursery was three, and that for KG, was four. However, this
was before the Ganguly
committee recommendations came to be followed last year. The
committee suggested the cut-off date to be March 31, which led to
confusion among schools, and many of them rejected kids who were
three and three-plus for nursery, and admitted kids who were four
and four-plus in the same class.
Objection from schools
While the latest proposal has come as a good news for parents and
toddlers, the schools are not too happy with the government's
decision, as they say they do not have enough seats to accommodate
all students from nursery and KG in Class I next year. As the principal
of Tagore International School, Vasant Vihar, Madhulika Sen, pointed
out: "It is not feasible to accommodate all nursery
kids in Class I directly next year, as our first preference are
students studying in KG this year, who would fill up almost all
120 seats in Class I. In addition, we need to take test or interview
for admissions in Class I. We cannot promote kids just because they
meet the age criteria.''
As a solution, Sen said: "Expansion of the capacity
in KG alone will not solve the problem as we need to accommodate
these kids in subsequent classes in years to come. It will be a
tedious task to make provision for the additional rush till Class
X.''
Schools like CRPF Public School, which begin from KG straightway,
are also apprehensive of this additional rush. "Schools
which have nursery will prefer their own kids for KG first before
accommodating outside kids. Usually, we admit 120 kids in KG, but
there may be a tremendous rush next year, and we are clueless as
to how to go about it,'' said principal Suraj Prakash.
The government, however, assured that adequate guidelines will be
sent to schools regarding admissions. "We will send
required guidelines to schools and put the same on our website to
ensure that there is no confusion,'' said Ray.
Mismatch in class Teachers also fear a mismatch,
as some kids would have completed KG before coming to Class I, while
the others would have studied only till nursery. Said Gyan Bharati
School principal R C Shekhar: "The situation will turn
messy as there will be a huge mismatch in classrooms next year.
Kids who will be promoted from nursery may not be equally equipped
to grasp the lessons.''
Some parents also want their kids to study in KG even if they turn
five next year. "I don't want my kid to skip
any class and want her to study in KG next year. I hope she is eligible
to apply for KG next year if she turns five,'' said
Tasveen Kohli, a worried parent. Ray, on her part, assured that
"five is the minimum age for Class I, and this won't
bar kids exceeding the age to apply.''
Source: The Times Of India
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