Parents seeking admission for their children often experience severe mental distress due to these rejections.
Hyderabad: Many parents have been denied application forms for their child's school admission because their child is older than three-and-a-half years by January of the academic year. This issue is widespread, especially in high-demand missionary and private schools.
Parents seeking admission for their children often experience severe mental distress due to these rejections. Although this concern has been reported in the media multiple times, the education department remains a silent spectator.
Several parents have shared their struggles, but many remain silent out of fear that school management might retaliate and disrupt their children’s academics. Experts emphasise that preschool should focus on peer interaction, play, and learning from the environment rather than adhering to a rigid curriculum.
They state that schools should not impose strict age limits on admissions, as these artificial barriers have become a serious problem for parents. They urge the government to take strict action against such policies.
Bokkala Parthasaratha Reddy, a market research professional, shared his experience. “I have twins who were born in 2015. When I applied for their admission to well-known schools, I was informed that children must be between three and three-and-a-half years old as of January 1 of the academic year. Schools refused to provide application forms for children outside this age bracket. In some cases, applications were accepted, but admission was later denied.”
A similar incident took place at a school in Uppal. The mother of a student explained, “Getting admission into a good school is extremely difficult. The management rejected our application simply because my child was a few months older than their required age limit. They were harsh with us.”
A student recalled how her birth month was altered for school admission. “To secure a seat in a convent school, my birth month was changed from January to November. Now, I have completed my graduation. I asked my parents about it. They told me that they had to do it to get me into school.”
Private and missionary schools have been enforcing these age restrictions for years. Despite repeated concerns, the state government and school education department have failed to take any action, leaving parents without support to challenge these unfair policies. When contacted, the district education officer of Hyderabad refused to respond to questions regarding these strict age criteria.
Dr D. Suchitra, professor of paediatrics at Niloufer Hospital, stressed that school admissions should be based on a child’s readiness rather than a rigid age requirement. “Child development is multifaceted. By the age of six, children develop reasoning skills, application abilities and knowledge-sharing capacities. However, developmental milestones vary, and early grooming due to societal pressure or parental work schedules is unfair.”
She further added, “Preschool should not be about strict academic instruction but should focus on allowing children to interact, play, and learn from their surroundings. A child’s readiness for school should be determined by developmental factors such as communication skills, physical development, and emotional well-being—not by arbitrary age cut-offs.”
With parents struggling under these rigid policies and the government failing to intervene, experts are calling for immediate reforms in school admission criteria to ensure a fair and child-friendly education system.
