From the coming academic year, only those children who have completed five years as on May 31, will be admitted to Class 1. Even a shortfall of one day would prevent the child from entering standard 1, said primary and secondary education Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri.
He said that the law would be enforced strictly to avoid complications in higher education and in seeking jobs.
“A circular has already been issued to all government, aided, unaided and private schools in this regard. If this is adhered to strictly, then no student will appear for the SSLC before completing 15 years of age,” Kageri said.
The issue came under serious consideration after more than 17,000 students who passed out of the SSLC this year had not yet completed 15 years. “This problem will continue for about the next ten years. Hence, students who have already been admitted will be permitted to appear for the SSLC,” Kageri clarified.
“Until recently, parents had the choice to admit their wards aged between five years to five years and 10 months to Class 1, after which admission was compulsory. However, from the next academic year, we will go as per the birth certificate and only admit children who are five years old as on May 31 to Class 1,” Kageri said.
He added that it has been proved that children below five years of age are mature enough only to understand activity-based lessons. Since the lessons taught from Class 1 are more scientific based, they need to be mentally mature too for such teaching, he said.
He said that a centralised information system will be set up to monitor admissions from now.
“We expect about 10 lakh students to be admitted to Class 1 the coming academic year. So, we will enlist their name, date of birth, parents’ names, and residential and school addresses district-wise on the website,” Kageri said.
He added that in order to promote higher education, the department would award a computer to three top scorers in the SSLC examinations in each educational district.
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