“I have seen many children in UKG being taught the tables.
Rajalakshmi said that a good childhood centre should ideally have corners and the child should be left free to choose whether he/she wants to play with pictures or engage with numbers through games and activities. An advocate of a multiple intelligence approach, Ms. She also said that although many pre-schools project themselves as Montessori schools, they either do not follow the Montessori Method or club it with the traditional chalk and board method. While they can allow them to read and colour using crayons, they should avoid asking the child to use pencil until the age of five,” she says. There is a need to ensure that pre-schools teach age appropriate skills. “The fine motor coordination and neuromuscular development of the child would not have set in until five years. Rajalakshmi M.S., Head of the Department, Early Childhood Education and administration course, VHD Central Institute of Home Science, says that pre-school should not introduce formal writing until the age of five. Whether the parents chose to enrol their child for kindergarten or Montessori, early educators feel that many school managements and pre-schools are not adequately trained. I prefer an interactive life-based education in his initial years,” she explains. “I do not want regular schooling as I do not believe in black board-based education in the early years. Saranya Sundararajan plans to enrol her two-year-two-month-old son in a Montessori pre-school between the age of three and six. Carvalho said that many schools have more seats in LKG as compared to nursery to accommodate children from other pre-schools. More important, I can avoid the hassle of trying to obtain admission in LKG.” But I took the decision as it would ease the transition to LKG. She says, “I did not want my child to travel many kilometres and be in a formal school environment. For instance, Pooja S., parent of a two-year-eight-month-old has decided to enrol her daughter in the pre-nursery section of a popular school. Despite this, they insist that we admit them.” Pre-school or nursery?Īnother dilemma parents face is whether to enrol their child in the pre-school or nursery section of a full-fledged school. But I explain to them that enrolling a child who is not ready for schooling would make it very difficult for the child to cope. Manilal Carvalho, principal, Delhi Public School Bengaluru East, says, “During every admission season, parents plead with us to admit their child even though they are underage, as they fear that they may lose out on one year. However, early childhood educators warn that both managements and parents should not enrol children into formal schooling before the age of four. Many managements and teachers say that parents request them to admit children young, citing that their child’s date of birth falls a few months short of the cut-off date. For lower kindergarten (LKG), the range is from three-and-a-half years to four years 10 months. Though the department announced norms last January, both for kindergarten and Standard One, the order was altered midway leading to much confusion.Īdding to the mess is the varying criteria adopted by the top city-based schools while offering admissions for pre-nursery.Īdmission age ranges from two years six months to three years 10 months depending on the school. With the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) not laying down clear cut rules on the age criteria for pre-nursery, nursery and even class one admissions, schools have set their own limits. How early do parents start looking for schools for their toddlers? The time when parental anxiety over schooling sets in appears to be receding by the year, and now, it starts when the child just about turns one.