Schools across Bengaluru are worried that the age criteria for kindergarten and first grade as mandated by the National Education Policy (NEP) will affect their admission numbers for the upcoming academic year.
There is also confusion among parents as well as school managements as to whether to admit students who have not completed the required age criteria for first grade for 2024-2025.
What NEP says
As per the NEP, the students getting admitted to LKG and UKG should have completed four and five years respectively before the commencement of the academic year on June 1 (in 2025 – 2026).
Similarly, it says that students getting admitted to first grade should have completed six years before June 1, from the academic year of 2025 – 2026.
“To abide by the NEP, we are not accepting children who do not fulfill the age criteria for KG classes and first grade from this year itself. We are worried that this might upset parents and the admission numbers might drop this year as they might go and check at other schools if they are offering admissions without this age bar. However, most schools have now started following the same rules for admissions and we are crossing our fingers that the parents realise this,” said Selvaraj, principal, ACTS Secondary School, Electronics City.
While most schools are very strict with the rules when it comes to KG classes, some have been flexible with admissions for first grade this year.
“If a child wants to get admitted for first grade year after (2025 – 2026), then we will not accept them if they are not six years old. But this year, the schools have been asked to take a call. So, we have decided to take students who are five years and 10 months or five years and 11 months old for 2024 – 2025. Although our admission process will only take place in March,” said Sunil Fernandes S.J., principal, St Joseph’s Boys High School.
He added that with Karnataka having the unique student achievement tracking system (SATS) portal, it is important for schools to follow the age criteria as the system will otherwise reject the child’s profile.
An excuse for some
A principal from a school in the central business district (CBD) remarked that while some schools are trying to abide by the rules, others are using this as an excuse to be more exclusive with their admissions.
“With parents running behind popular schools, the schools are using this policy to their advantage,” they said.
For the last couple of years, parents have been protesting against these new rules which have created confusion about admissions with many being forced to repeat classes.
“We considered going to court and even hired a lawyer. But when the new government was elected, they promised a State Education Policy and we dropped our legal pursuit as we expected some relief from all this. Now, without a choice, I am making my daughter repeat LKG in 2024 – 2025,” said Niveditha C.P., a resident of Shastri Nagar.
Convincing parents
Some schools reported that despite strong protests from parents, they were able to convince them and retain admissions.
“The parents ask us why we did not have this rule when they got their first child admitted. We are taking our time and convincing them to admit their students in pre-nursery instead of KG if their child is below the age limit,” said B.S. Venkatachala, principal, Narayana School, Vidyaranyapura. He also said that there was an increase of 20 – 25% in overall admissions this year.
