Underage Children in Class I: Implications for Educational Planning in India

The purpose of the research is to determine the percentage of underage students in primary school across India and draft recommendations for standardizing school entry age and providing ECCE provisions. Data generated from District Information System of Education (DISE) reveals that there is no universal standard age of entry into primary schools and while twelve states have fixed the primary school entry age at 6, twenty-three states have stipulated the age at 5. Analysis reveals that 11.5% students or 3.52 million students across India are enrolled within Class 1 at an age that is less than that stated by the respective state. Underage students are largely found in private aided schools followed by private and government schools. Furthermore, urban schools demonstrate a higher number of underage students as opposed to rural schools and data segregated by gender reveals that more boys are enrolled underage within states that have a defined entry age of 5 years.

The results suggest that India must standardize the school entry age at 6 in accordance with the Constitution of India as this will aid in increasing the net enrollment rates. This will also allow the country to follow international school entry age and will facilitate students enrolled in pre-primary education (3-6 years) within ICDS to transit smoothly to primary education. The study concludes that national management information system must be developed to generate statistics on various provisions of ECCE to children of age three to six years as this will facilitate in effective planning for pre-primary and primary schooling.