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My wife wanted our son to start school at two years old, but I refused, due to pressure, I gave in after 26 months. I think it depends on the growth of each child, but I will like them to start at age three’ Femi Babajide, a father of three children, who lives on Lagos Mainland said.
With the rising number of working-class young couples, school going age is reducing rapidly. Some working-class mothers send their babies off to daycare three to four months after birth, that is, at the expiration of their maternity leave.
The daycare and pre-nursery (sometimes nursery inclusive) were not regarded as part of the formal school system in Nigeria. This is changing though because these foundational years have been found to be critical in the formation of a child.
Experts say, when deciding the right age at which to send your child to school, older rather than younger may be the best option.
Legally in Nigeria, the official school going age is six years like it obtains in most western countries, nursery schools not being part of Nigeria’s formal education system and what is allowed is the daycare which should be conducted either in the mothers tongue or future education language ( not compulsory ).
Around Europe, the age of compulsory education varies from three years in Hungary to four years in Northern Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and five years in Cyprus, Malta, England, Scotland, Wales, Greece, Netherlands, Latvia, Poland.
Others are six years in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, and Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and seven years in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Serbia, and Sweden.
Knowing if your child is ready to start school in September can be particularly difficult for parents whose children’s birthdays fall after Christmas.
Worrying about whether your child is too young to start, or whether they will be bored if you wait an additional year, are common concerns.
“I’ve been on both sides of the fence. My first child started school less than three months after her fourth birthday. She was tall, mature, confident, and capable and she settled into school very well” Ngozi Onoh-Okwuagwu, mother of four children at the Broadway Junior Academy, Dillion, Kirikiri Town said. “She had no difficulties throughout and her teachers often commented that it was hard to believe she was the youngest in her class. Do I regret my decision? Absolutely.”
“She has had to grow up faster than I’d have liked and while at the time I could not visualise my little four-year-old as a teenager, sure enough the day came and all the peer pressure and challenges associated with secondary school came to her way sooner than I felt they should have” Onoh-Okwuagwu said.
Onoh-Okwuagwu’s third child was already five when he started school. He has a different personality to his sister but the driving force in this case was his peer age group.
“There seems to have been a move towards a later starting age at my children’s school and I factored that in. Do I regret waiting an extra year? Not a bit.”
Helen Kelly, principal at Holly Park Boys’ School in Blackrock, Co Dublin, says indications of a child’s readiness for school include “a level of independence and an ability to do things for himself — to dress himself, for example, and to do simple jobs.”
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
