The Right Age to Begin Formal Education
An early start doesn’t guarantee top results
Living in London, I have often espoused the benefits of an early start to education. My children began their Reception year at the young age of four and I found that immersing them in full-time school helped with their socialisation, independence, and literacy. However, my American and European friends are often quick to remind me that we did not begin formal education until the age of six. We grew up in different countries in a very different generation, but we did seem to enjoy more creative freedom during our early years. So, are those two additional years in the classroom really necessary? Do they actually make a difference long-term?
It’s hard to define what “better” education looks like but one can start by looking at pure attainment. One good resource is the PISA international rankings, conducted by the OECD, which looks at the test results of 15-year-olds across 79 countries and regions. China tops the charts, and countries like Canada and Finland, where children enjoy high educational satisfaction, come in well ahead of the UK. Students in all three of these countries begin formal schooling at six years of age or later.
The International Association for the Evaluation for Educational Achievement (IEA) also found that the top ten scoring countries had a mean entry age greater than six-years-old for formal school. So why the push for children to begin so early in the UK education system?
The history of the UK mandating school at the age of five goes back to the 1870 Education Act. At the time, this was not a developmental decision but rather one made to both encourage women into the workforce, and to keep children safe from poor conditions at home or on the street. Over time it has been revisited, but the early starting age has held.
In the UK, the “Early Years Foundation Stages” extend from nursery and kindergarten through the first year of school referred to as Reception (ages four and five). They are meant to be based on a “principled play-based approach to learning and development.” Ideally, children have access to physical and creative play opportunities throughout the school day.
The benefits of an early start are the initial exposure to basic literacy and maths concepts, especially if this has not yet been provided in the home environment. The children learn routine and structure earlier on as well as how to dress, eat and toilet independently. The opportunity to interact with children from outside one’s own household is an additional benefit. As not all children have access to books, music, sport, and play at home, the early start is meant to serve as an equaliser across society.
There are some clear downsides, however. Teachers under pressure for “results” may assume more of a didactic role than a guiding one. Highly academic schools can require very young children to sit at attention for long periods of time and may not offer the physical and creative outlets they crave. There is also often a misguided notion that performing rote tasks such as writing one’s name, reading basic words, and memorising basic sums implies subject mastery.
While some children may flourish in such a structured environment early on, all children are different. Some are mature enough to sit from an early age, while others learn primarily via proprioceptive play. Some are competitive and crave mastery, while others are far more relaxed.
The reality is that the “bump” that children receive from beginning structured education early on simply doesn’t hold over time. Research finds that while the UK early starters move ahead for a short time, by the age of eight children in Slovenia (who began at seven-years-old) matched or even well-surpassed them on exams. In addition, later readers also tend to catch up with earlier readers around age eight. Comprehension and a love of reading on one’s own come with time and maturity. Books can be enjoyed with adults early on to instill a love of reading as opposed to insisting the child read independently.
Mental health and development are also a concern. Studies from both the US and Denmark have shown that children who begin kindergarten a year later than the average student in their cohort showed better self-control and attention years later.
If children are to begin as early as four, there should be great care taken to safeguarding their time for exploration and physical play (particularly outdoors). The goal must be to create a safe and creative environment where a love of learning is established early on. Children’s progress can be assessed early but in a way that is both fun and appropriate — puzzles, crafting a story on a picture, and using numicon to partition numbers are all ways I have seen used effectively.
I don’t believe there is any one “perfect” system of education. Each country has different resources, population demographics, and challenges. If structured in the right way, beginning formal education as early as age four can be a net benefit for society overall. Mandating early education enables both parents to participate in the workforce and offers all children in society the opportunity to play and learn together.
