Parenting: School and Age Debate [-3 -2 -1 before 1st Standard]

Parenting: School and Age Debate [-3 -2 -1 before 1st Standard]
[Written 14 November 2007]

Most first time parents ponder as to the ‘right’ age to start sending their wards to school. We were no different and we too went through this debate over and over at home and even while walking on our daily errands!!!

We figured a nice terminology (others may have thought of it already, but hope to make it more popular and more in use!!!) that could help potential school seeking parents eliminating initial confusion and help in deciding the actual school rather than other seemingly minor things:

“-3 -2 -1 before 1st Standard” - The ‘-3 -2 -1’ stands to denote the classes before 1st standard – this eliminates the confusion with different names used for lower entry classes in different schools and different mediums of education. Simply put ‘-1’ would be the class immediately preceding Std. 1 (which could be UKG, Sr. KG, M2 - As in Montessori Schools, or just KG, etc), ‘-2’ would be one before that (which could be LKG, Jr. KG, M1 - As in Montessori Schools, Nursery, etc) and likewise ‘-3’ would be one more before ‘-2’ (which could be Nursery or Pre-Nursery, Playschool, etc). There could also be a '-4' (which could be Little Nursery or Pre-Nursery, Playschool, Playgroup, etc) and then one can go on to extrapolate this to include even a ‘-5’ for say ‘Littleschool’ or ‘Babyschool’ classes that are now coming up in some of the newer crept up schools.

Simple!!! Isn’t it?

Then comes the age part - The rule of thumb to follow in this case would be that a child entering 1st Standard should fall between the age of 5.5 to 6.5 yrs (an age band that is valid throughout India and across different mediums - though some schools are strict that it should be 6+ at the start of the academic session in June) and then use the ‘-3 -2 -1’ terminology to work your way backwards and decide what is right for you little one!!!

PS:
a. Every parent should debate this when their time comes and enjoy this small joy of parenting, but hope people reading this post would benefit from our experience.
b. My personal advice would be not to be too finicky or disturbed if your child is some months here and there – by the time they complete 10th Standard (or equivalent), it all seems very trivial and doesn’t matter much!!!
c. The usual disclaimer applies - and nothing should be taken for granted without finding out from the actual schools of one's choice.