A city school is admitting children at the age of 2-plus to match the trend of early schooling that several other institutions have done in the past.
The pre-nursery classes at Mahadevi Birla World Academy will start from the new academic session in April.
“We want to catch them young and groom them right from the beginning,” said principal Anjana Saha.
She said parents, too, prefer to put their children in school at an early age.
Loreto House and Loreto Convent Entally brought down the age of entry in the last academic session. The two schools have started taking in students at the age of 3-plus.
“Many pre-schools that students go to follow incorrect ways of teaching. So, when they come to us, it is difficult to undo what they have already learnt. We take them early so we can follow our methods,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal, Loreto Convent Entally.
Mahadevi Birla World Academy is starting with two sections of pre-nursery (for age two-plus).
The students would move up nursery, lower kindergarten and upper kindergarten before going to Class I.
“There was a demand and we also had space. So, we decided to go ahead with it,” said vice principal of the school, Nupur Ghosh.
Admitting their children to pre-nursery is easier for parents, too, rather than changing schools.
Mahadevi Birla World Academy has also split kindergarten into lower and upper.
“There are some parents who want their children to go to upper kindergarten instead of Class I and we have given them that option. They have given us consent letters for this,” said Ghosh.
She said parents gave their reasons for this request. They want their children’s “base to be consolidated”, something that had suffered during the two years of online lessons in the Covid pandemic.
At that age, school is not about learning numbers or letters but social skills. A lot of learning happens from the environment and peer interaction.
“The parents have said that there was not enough reading or writing during the two years of pandemic and online classes. So, they want ther children to do one more year of pre-primary before going to Class I,” said Ghosh.
The school said they would be testing the waters before deciding to increase the intake of pre-nursery.
“After the pandemic, a lot of children (in the pre-primary level) are perhaps being home schooled. We want to see the success of the two sections before deciding on increasing the intake of children,” said Saha.