Minimum age leads to maximum stress

Parents of toddlers in the Capital are running from pillar to post trying to decipher the tug-of-war that is going on between the court, the Delhi government, school authorities and the Ganguly commission regarding nursery education.

The Delhi government is now planning to approach the High Court over the minimum age for nursery admissions early next week.

“In the application filed today, we have submitted that no child who is not above three years of age should go to school. A child below this age is not toilet-trained, is usually bottle-fed and cannot climb the stairs,” said KTS Tulsi, counsel for the Delhi Government.

In an earlier order the court had said that the minimum age of admission for a child in nursery would be three years old.

“We are following the four plus ruling that existed. And the HC’s order has created more confusion as most schools have already finished admissions. Maybe from next year things will become clear as now it is too late for this order,” says Usha Ram.

Educationists are quite upset with the age criterion. “It is not right to send children to school at the age of three. You are pushing a child into a structured, formal regimented environment way too fast which will hamper his development,” says Dr Jitendra Nagpal, a child psychiatrist.

Parents remain stumped. “We are ready to pay for our children’s education but we can’t seem to get them admitted to nursery. My son is three and a half and he has not been admitted anywhere though I applied to various schools,” says Savita Krishnan.