Minimum age criteria for nursery admission only from 2024-25: DoE

Panaji: The directorate of education (DoE) has issued a circular clarifying that the new age criteria to admit students at the entry level (nursery or preschool), as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, is not applicable for the 2022-23 academic year.
As per the policy, students should have already attained the age of three at the time of admission to preschool and should have completed six years at the time of admission to Class I. The DoE had issued a circular last year stating that a child admitted to nursery or preschool from the academic year 2023-24 must have completed three years of age on or before June 1, 2023.
For Class I, the new rule comes into effect from the academic year 2025-26.
“In partial modification circular clause (3) may be read as: “The above provision at No. 2 shall not apply to students admitted to first year nursery/preschools in the academic year 2021-22 and 2022-23, under relaxations provided with circular dated March 31, 2022, in partial modification of the earlier circular dated June 22, 2021. Other contents of the circular remain the same, which may kindly be noted,” the DoE has said in the clarification circular.
All states and UTs across the country have been directed to align their Class I admission age with guidelines of NEP 2020, to age six plus years, to bring about uniformity throughout the country.
“It is enjoined upon the heads of all categories of aided, unaided and government pre-schools and primary schools in the state to adhere to the above laid out provisions for admission to first year of pre-school in the coming academic year 2022-23 and for Class I with prospective effect from the year 2025-26 onwards. Until then, admission to Class I in the interim/intervening period up until June 1, 2025 shall continue to be governed by provisions of Section 18 of the Goa School Education Act 1984 as amended,” the DoE has said.