According to the National Education Policy 2009, children from the age of six to 10 years should be in primary school and those from 10 to 12 years in middle school. Younger children of ages three to five years are expected to be attending pre-primary school. Any deviation from this places the child in the underage or overage category.
This policy became effective as a result of the household based data collected by the Pakistan Social and Living Measurement Survey, which showed that there is higher enrolment/attendance of six to11-year-old children in primary school and 11 to 13-year-old children in middle school, indicating that parents and schools were not being able to adhere strictly to the previously officially prescribed entry age of five years for primary school. Despite raising the age of entry, the findings of the Out of School Children study for Pakistan (UNICEF 2011) show that the average age of children in primary school ranges from four to13 years and for middle school from 10 to 15 years. The data also shows that children as young as three years and as old as eight years are enrolled in pre-primary school. Variations in age are even greater at the primary level with three to 17-year-olds in primary school, and nine to 17-year-olds in middle school.
The implications of these variations need to be understood in the context of why age appropriateness matters. The age at which a child should be in a particular grade or class is based on the development stages of children, including their learning abilities, and is linked to the curriculum that is being followed in a particular context. Based on this premise, age-appropriate methods, books, and materials form part of the curriculum. The new curriculum 2007 places great emphasis on the knowledge, skills and values that students are expected to acquire, measured at the end of each grade as learning outcomes. Thus when children of different ages are grouped together in the same grade or class for the process of learning in the formal system of education, this has implications both for learning and teaching.
Impact of being underage or overage:
Studies show that underage and especially overage children are more likely to drop out of school compared to their peers of the grade-appropriate age. Boys are at risk of not going to school or dropping out at both ends of the spectrum. The large number that drops out after early education and after completing primary school shows this. For the majority the early experience of school is discouraging, and older boys are more likely to be put to work compared to those appropriate for the grade in which they are enrolled. The same holds true for girls, with the exception that the older girls are likely to be pulled out of school to stay at home and help with household chores. Thus as children become older, for boys the economic cost of education and for girls the social cost of education act as inhibitors. However, boys are less likely than girls to be out of school at every age. The age of a child thus appears to be crucial in improving retention in school, completion of primary education and transition to the next educational level.
Age and child labour:
Child labour usually starts from the age of nine. Evidence suggests that child labour is linked with a smaller proportion of children entering school at the official entrance age, and with a higher proportion of children leaving the schooling system prematurely. Data from the Pakistan Labour Force Surveys show that children’s involvement in child labour rises with age. The incidence of child labour among children aged 12-14 years is more than double that of children aged 10-11 years. As children grow older, the expectation of their economic contribution towards the household increases. The opportunity cost of time spent in the classroom or studying increases as children become more productive; there are also fewer higher-level educational opportunities for older children. For girls, responsibility towards household chores and looking after younger siblings grows with age, and this may be one of the main reasons behind the percentage of female children involved in child labour being slightly higher than the percentage of males. There is also a higher probability faced by older children to drop out from school prematurely due to their involvement in child labour. This would also have an effect on the education completion rate and on the probability of continuing their education.
School availability issues:
Non-availability or poor quality of schools, late arrival of schooling in an area and poverty are key factors in children entering school at an older age. Parental lack of information, interest or negligence are additional factors. Absence of pre-primary schools results in lack of school readiness among children, leading to higher repetition rates especially in the first two grades of primary education. Repetition is also a main cause of drop out during primary school, especially in rural areas. Expenses related to education remain a significant concern for households in urban areas due to the greater availability of private schools.
Measures needed:
Ensuring quality as part of access to education is essential so that even if children enter school late there is an incentive for parents to keep them in school till they have completed elementary education. And, if a child enters school too early the school should be held responsible for placing the child in the appropriate grade. At the same time early childhood education needs to be given special attention to retain children in school.
Not all children are registered at birth, the rate being especially low in rural, remote, and tribal areas. Birth registration is essential if age-appropriate enrolment is to be ensured so that there is no ambiguity as to the age of the child once s/he is of school going age. Procedures for registering births are often cumbersome and time consuming, leaving large populations outside the net.
Providing alternate pathways to education such as vocational and technical education at the elementary and high school levels, as is the case in many other countries, has become essential to ensure that children complete elementary school and can see a future in which they can be absorbed into the labour market. A strategy whereby slums areas in cities and rural communities in general are targeted is required so that children from these areas get the training and skills in appropriate vocations and technologies for which there is a demand in country and abroad.
Government needs to recognise that the imperative of moving towards Universal Primary Education must not be achieved at the expense of placing children at risk of dropping out of school. Furthermore, Pakistan tends to lag behind other countries when age-appropriate data is used for comparison (UNESCO Institute of Statistics).
Dr Fareeha Zafar is Director, Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE), Lahore