By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

The recent decision of the Karnataka Government to strictly enforce the rule fixing the eligibility age (from the previous 5.5 years to 6 years), down to a day, for the admission of our children to schools, seems very archaic and counterproductive, as it will certainly become an impediment to their learning process, psychological development and even the achievement of their ambitions and goals in life. It is bound to have a very far-reaching and very deleterious, cascading effect, impacting their adulthood and professional lives.

While this decision is nothing short of being very unfair and illogical, what makes it very draconian is that it is being applied from this year, even to children who have already started their schooling process two years ago, under the previous more liberal system and are about to now step into their next higher classes.

Like a bolt from the blue, our State government has declared that from this year, it will strictly implement the guidelines of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which stipulates that children must be at least six years of age, on June 1st of the academic year, if they have to be admitted to Class 1.

Mind you, a child that is born just a day later, on June 2nd, has to wait a full year, before being eligible for admission to the first standard!

While this principle cannot be called a gold standard or hallmark of logical thinking, considering the fact that different children come with greatly differing learning abilities, it would have been acceptable had its enforcement been announced as applicable after a prospective cutoff date, giving a grace period of about two more years and enough time for parents to decide whether to start sending their children to preschools or not, in a given academic year.

This would have prevented academically bright children from the sudden mental trauma imposed on them, by being told that despite passing their examination, they will have to now repeat a year in the same class, for a reason they just cannot comprehend, while even their not-so-bright friends wave goodbye to them and proudly walk into the next higher class!

What becomes an added and perpetually continuing pain, is the experience of having to go to the same school, in the company of the same friends, in the same school van or bus, but to painfully different classes. What can be more disturbing and discouraging than this unfairness, in a little child’s life?

Has anyone in the decision-making corridors given a thought to this cruelty, which they are about to inflict on our little ones, with their apathy and thoughtlessness?

Now, coming to the enormity of this problem, it has been estimated that the implementation of this new rule is likely to impact not less than five lakh students across the State and about fifty thousand children in Bengaluru alone. Now, even if we leave aside for a moment what this sudden implementation of the new rule will do to our children, let us see how it can financially impact middle and lower-class parents, considering the undeniable fact that education does not come cheap, these days.

Today, in a highly competitive world, all parents, both rich and poor, go through great pains and strains financially, to see that their children get the best quality of education to make their future safe and secure. To achieve this, they sacrifice their own comforts and postpone all their wants and aspirations, setting aside a great portion of what they earn. And, very often they even take huge loans, which they repay very painfully over many years, enduring much hardship.

Now, the sudden decision of our government, to implement a rule, that had been kept in abeyance for two years, is only going to make a bad time worse, both for parents and their little ones. Why can’t we have a more sensible rule that gives two dates, six months apart and stipulates that all children born within this six-month time frame are eligible to seek admission to Class 1 and apply it only with two years advance notice?

While framing rules that concern the education of our children, it is best if our government does so only in close consultation with the many outstanding luminaries with rich experience in the field of education, who we have in our midst. I say this because, unlike in other sectors where mistakes can be corrected as we go along and any damage done can easily and quickly be undone, in the field of education, even the smallest error can impact an entire generation.

Now, leaving aside government thinking and government logic aside for a while, let us ask ourselves why we need to have rules that strictly lay down meaningless chronological calendar dates, for our children’s educational process, here in our country?

When I was given a double promotion, due to which I was able to skip my second standard and step into the third, many people warned my elated parents that this perceived perk would very likely be negated, if I was not considered eligible to appear for my tenth standard public examination under the new rule that was being proposed to be implemented by the government then.

Thankfully, my tenth standard examination came and went uneventfully, without the new rule coming. When we regularly read of children in other countries, concurrently completing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in medicine, engineering, management or law and even getting their Ph.Ds, while they are still in their teens and in high school, why are we in our country not able to be just as liberal?

We know very well that we too have many gifted children, let alone child prodigies in our midst, and mind you, their numbers are certainly much larger than we know and think. And, if only given a chance, they can do much earlier, what other much older children can do, much later. And, only the sky is the limit for their abilities.

Why don’t we give them a chance to fly and sing and explore the vast sky, instead of cruelly clipping their wings and confining them to the cages of our ill-conceived rules!

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