The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 mandate that six years of age be the minimum age for admission to Class 1. The Center has sent notice to all states and Union Territories to this effect.
The Department of School Education and Literacy of the Ministry of Education (MoE) has sent letters to the administrations of the Union Territories and the state governments repeating directives that have been issued on multiple occasions since the NEP’s inception in 2020. The previous year, a similar notification was also given.
“The session 2024-25 is soon to begin when new admissions will take place. It is expected that the age in your State/UT has now been aligned to 6+ for admission to Grade-I, accordingly,” the ministry said in its letter dated February 15.
The Lok Sabha was notified by the Center in March 2022 that children who have not completed six years of school are eligible for admission to Class 1 in fourteen states and union territories, including Assam, Gujarat, Puducherry, Telangana, Ladakh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Goa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Kerala.
The Center has previously said that measuring net enrollment ratios in various states is impacted when the minimum age is not in line with the NEP requirement.
The first five years of the NEP 2020 education system, which is designed for grades three through eight, are made up of two years of Classes 1 and 2, which correspond to grades six through eight, and three years of preschool, which corresponds to age groups three through six.
