Nearly 11.64 % of children who enrolled in Class I in the 2017-2018 academic year in Tamil Nadu had enrolled before they turned 6. Six years is the minimum age mandated by the Right to Education (RTE) Act for class I. In the 2015 and 2016 academic years as well, the percentage of children below six years of age was 11.95% and 11.84% respectively.
Puducherry tops the list of underage enrolment at the primary level of school education, with 18.75% of students below 6 years enrolled in Class 1 followed by Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. While the Tamil Nadu numbers are low, they were still higher than the national average of 6.98% of students who were below the age of 6 in 2017-18.
The data was a part of the response given to a question raised by Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha member on whether the government was aware about the high percentage of children enrolled in Class 1 before the age of 6 years. She had further asked if the government had planned to introduce mandatory LKG and UKG Classes in government run-schools.
In his response, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Minister for Human Resource Development said that the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan recognises the pre-school programme as a critical component and supports State governments which provide pre-school education either in schools or through co-location of Anganwadis in primary schools.
In December 2018, the Tamil Nadu State Government had announced that montessori-based kindergarten classes would be started in Anganwadi centres functioning in middle schools under the Integrated Child Development Services(ICDS) scheme. The aim was to encourage more parents to send their children to anganwadi centres since parents had turned to private schools for their children aged 4 and 5 years old.
Vasugi Arul, President of the Tamil Nadu Anganwadi Workers Union said that when this was initially announced, it had garnered considerable interest among parents who rushed to admit their children in the kindergarten sections. “This was started in 2,381 anganwadi centres attached to middle schools. The implementation however could have been better since surplus teachers from the department were directed to handle these sections when it should have been eligible anganwadi workers who could have been trained for the same,” she said.
S. Moses, School Teachers Federation of India(STFI) said that to ensure that children not only enrolled in Kindergarten but also seamlessly transitioned to class 1 in the same school, the school education department should have considered setting up kindergarten classes attached to primary schools instead of at Anganwadis, as was proposed. “This will also ensure better administration and students can then join Class 1 in the same primary school,” he added.
