At what age should a child start school?

BY MARGARET OFFONG

Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by parent or guardian within or outside the home. Early childhood is defined as an age bracket between 2 - 5.

 According to UNESCO, early childhood education is a remarkable time for child brain development and this is also the period of laying a good foundation for subsequent learning and this is usually between the age of 3-5 years old.

Early childhood education can produce significant gain in children’s learning and development. High quality of early childhood education helps the child to perform well thereby reducing poor performance in school when admitted later. It is makes the children polite, smart and outspoken.

But the question here is at what age should a child start school? In modern times, the school days are reducing daily and it borders me that parents send their children to school as early as 18 months and they expect them to write well.

 Before any parent can think of making their child to start schooling the parent must know if the child can hold onto them when they are apart, they should understand that when a child is emotionally attached to his parents there is a sense of emotional connection which cannot be easily separated.

Recently, i had an argument with a friend of mind whose child started school at a very tender age, the child could barely  say “daddy” when her mother registered her in nursery school, when home work are given to her, the mother will take the pains of doing the homework for her, defending the child ,the mother said “i rather keep doing her homework for her until she is of age of doing it by herself, than for her to stay back at home to disturb me.”

Researchers have it that children should not start school until they are 3-7 years of age to avoid learning what is bigger than him or her and this can cost much stress to the teachers.

The major problem with starting school early is that such children do not have the privilege of being nurtured under good parenting skills because they are forced to start school early and such children are often faced with low self-esteem later.

Although early childhood education is the best form of education a parent give to their children, they are some inherent lapses in early education, these are; some children feel stressed in school such as story time, playtime and learning time, many children struggle to conform with this activities often time these activities are often different from what a child experience at home this, combine with the absence of a loving and caring support of the parent and this may result in the child manifesting sadness, anger or aggression.

Secondly, even when a child starts school early, the process of transiting from one class to another takes a longer time for example, a child who starts school will be admitted in crèche before kindergarten, pre nursery, nursery before a child starts primary class the need for early education is not achieved because at that point a child will be between 7-8 years of age and this may lead to delay for the child to start secondary school later in future and this may also affect the child when due for employment.

Finally, if parent can create more time for their children during the early stage of their lives and make them start school at the age of 2-3 years of age which is recommended by researcher in order for the child to gain the care and love of the parent.

School owners should cut the transition stages of child into different, they should also have in mind that they are to build the children future and not a way of delaying the child for financial reasons. The measures of making a child go through just the playgroup and then begin the primary section should be embrace as this will enhance the children performance in studying.