Is starting at 5 years old a good age to start education?

Shaddy J.B
3 min readNov 16, 2021

It’s beneficial to children in many ways if mainstream education began later than the age of five, which is a young age for children to begin school and can have severe consequences for their mental health.

Adolescents in Finland begin substantial school at the age of seven, while children in 88 percent of countries throughout the world begin general education curriculum around the age of six or seven. However, in the United Kingdom and the United States, a kid normally begins school at the age of five, with early years of pre-school and nursery in the UK, which can also be harmful both long and short term.

The argument goes that “kids should be kids”; therefore should we have to send our children to school at such a young age that they may still be having fun while learning? According to a study conducted by the Too Much Too Soon campaign, “the more time young children may spend in holistic, playful, and creatively focused environments, the more likely they are to develop happily and healthily,” especially for impoverished and summer-born children.

Allowing adolescents to explore via play at home benefit the kid far more than the new and often mentally upsetting experience of beginning comprehensive school at such an early age.

In childhood and adolescence, entering standard education at an early age, they are also assessed at an early age, which might have a severe psychological impact. According to a recent study, just ’52 percent of four and five-year-olds examined at the conclusion of the early years foundation stage were considered to have attained a ‘good’ level of development.’

Four or five years old is too early to be assessing a kid, and the desire to do well puts both parents and kids under stress, as some parents excessively worry about just how their child is doing in comparison to others in their class, whereas comparing adolescents to other children is not necessarily a smart idea.

Although it is true that sending a child to school at the age of five may relieve pressure on some parents (e.g., more time to themselves or to get on with work in their hectic schedules), it is also true that putting children in mainstream education “as early as we do is merely providing a creche for overworked parents at best, and giving the children a poor start in education at worst.” This is due to the fact that, even if it is convenient, the adolescent may just be unprepared.

It may appear that a couple of years won’t make a significant difference in a kid’s life and development, but it just wouldn’t hurt to send children to school a couple of years sooner than in other nations.

Nevertheless, especially during the early phases of child development, each year matters, thus raising the beginning age to six or seven instead of five would be extremely advantageous, not only to the kid’s psychological health but also to their long-term growth.

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Shaddy J.B

A 17-year-old boy who loves to read and write… on sometimes controversial subjects.