Enrolment age to Class I to remain at five

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The enrolment age of children to Class I in government/aided schools will remain five years in the state with an anticipated green signal from the Centre.
A meeting called by the Education Minister to discuss the implementation of RTE (Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education) in the capital on Wednesday, concluded that the enrolment age shall remain at five years until CBSE schools continue to admit children of five years into Class I.
The meeting decided to put on hold  the introduction of any structural changes proposed in RTE including the shifting of Class V to lower primary and Class VIII to upper primary section.
It was decided that  it was enough to stick to notional changes and not to introduce structural changes. The deployment of teachers in accordance with the structural changes and the consequent steps to be taken would be discussed in detail later.
The meeting chaired by Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb decided to get a ratification from the Centre on the issue of enrolment and continue with admissions as per the earlier method. It is learnt that the Education Secretary had already communicated the situation in the state to the Centre.
The danger of government schools rejecting admissions to five-year-olds and allowing other streams to admit them had been properly communicated, it was informed at the meeting. The Education Secretary submitted a proposal at the meeting which proposed structural changes without making the student and teacher population feel the shift. This includes setting up of cluster schools which could bring a certain number of schools under a common umbrella. The proposal would be studied and discussed in detail later.
The Education Minister has made it clear at the meeting that the government’s policy on new CBSE schools would not be reviewed.  The representatives of various departments like Higher Secondary, SSA, VHSE and teachers organisations were present at the meeting.