Delhi Schools To Admit Only 6-Plus Aged Children In Class 1 From 2026. Here's Why
Delhi School Admission Age: The Directorate of Education (DoE), Delhi has announced a major shift in the school admission structure by aligning with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Starting academic session 2026-27, children will be eligible for admission to Class 1 only after they complete six years of age. This move is aimed at restructuring the foundational stage of schooling across government, government-aided, and recognised private schools in the capital.
What Will Change?
As per the new framework, the foundational stage-spanning three years before Class 1-will be formalised as part of school education. The updated structure will follow these age criteria:
Nursery (Bal Vatika/ Preschool 1): 3+ years
Lower KG (Preschool 2): 4+ years
Upper KG (Preschool 3): 5+ years
Class 1: 6+ years
The DoE has clarified that the titles of pre-primary classes (Nursery, LKG, UKG) may be renamed in line with evolving practices.
What Schools and Parents Should Know
The circular mandates all schools under the DoE's jurisdiction to implement this revised structure starting 2026-27. While detailed implementation guidelines will follow, the policy shift is aimed at ensuring that students entering formal schooling are developmentally ready, as envisioned under the NEP 2020 and RTE Act, 2009.
Call for Suggestions
To make the process more inclusive, the DoE has invited feedback from all stakeholders-teachers, parents, students, school bodies, experts, and the public. Inputs can be shared at schoolbranchnep@gmail.com by July 10, 2025.
This new circular supersedes all previous orders related to age criteria and foundational stage structuring in Delhi schools.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
6 hours ago
- The Hindu
Promote mother tongue-based instruction, says CIIL director
The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru, through its National Testing Service–India (NTS-I), organised a one-day orientation programme on 'Basics of testing and evaluation in Kannada with reference to NEP 2020', here on Monday. The programme was specially designed for final-year students from the Government College of Teacher Education (GCTE) here. Speaking at the inauguration, H.N. Geethambha, principal and joint director, GCTE, stressed the importance of assessment and teaching in the learning process and urged students and teachers to adopt reflective teaching practices. Pankaj Dwivedi, assistant director, CIIL and officer in charge of NTS-I, highlighted the relevance of NEP-2020, especially in reference to importance of assessment in contemporary classrooms. He advocated a balanced approach that integrates traditional and modern assessment methods. Dr. Dwivedi encouraged participants to remain committed to lifelong learning and assured continued academic support from the CIIL. P.R. Dharmesh Fernandez, Deputy Director, CIIL, outlined the institute's initiatives in language education and research, including teacher training, language documentation, and multilingual resource development. Presiding over the valedictory session, Shailendra Mohan, Director, CIIL, called upon future educators to embrace the vision of Viksit Bharat by promoting mother tongue-based instruction to boost cognitive development and foster inclusive education. Over 95 students and teachers participated in the programme.
Indian Express
11 hours ago
- Indian Express
NIOS 10th Class Results 2025: April session scorecards out at nios.ac.in, results.nios.ac.in
NIOS 10th Result 2025 Link: The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has issued scorecards for the Class 10th students. The April session results for the Class 10th can be accessed from the official website– and Through the enrolment number and the Captcha code, students will be able to check and download their scorecards. The NIOS April-May session exams for Class 10 and 12 were held from April 9. The NIOS Secondary, or Class 10, exams started with the Entrepreneurship paper and concluded with Carnatic Sangeet, Employability Skills, and Sanskrit Sahitya on May 19. Last year, the Class 10th results were announced on June 27. Once released, here are the steps students can use to check their results. Step 1: Visit the official website- Step 2: Click on the admission tab, then go to the student portal Step 3: Click on the exam and the result tab Step 4: Select the result option Step 5: Click the 'check result link' Step 6: Enter your login details Step 7: The result will be displayed, download and take a print for future use. Candidates can register discrepancies against their NIOS 2025 April/May results through their student portal dashboard on within 30 days from the result date. The notification of the result date will carry the dates and time for registering the discrepancies. Additionally, a 15-day window for recheck and re-evaluation is also available. Students can email rcell@ for any queries. The Class 12 results were previously released on June 20. Meanwhile, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities signed a tripartite agreement with the NIOS and the NCERT to strengthen inclusive education for Persons with Disabilities (PwD). Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan presided over the signing ceremony held here, a statement issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said. The collaboration seeks to review and adapt curriculum and textbooks to ensure alignment with the principles and pedagogical approaches of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, focusing on relevance, accessibility and inclusivity for learners with disabilities.
The Hindu
12 hours ago
- The Hindu
The need to normalise queer in the classroom
I wear a mask. Not like the crime-fighting vigilante Batman but like a self-conscious child at a fancy dress competition, trying to fit in. The mask becomes stark in June, Pride Month, which also marks the beginning of the school academic year. Over weekends, I plunge into community mobilisation and conversations on sexuality. On weekdays, I find myself fumbling when an adolescent girl student remarks, 'I am attracted to my friend who is also a girl.' Around 10% of India's population belongs to the LGBTQ+ community. It has been seven years since Section 377 was read down, decriminalising homosexuality. Yet conversations around gender and sexuality remain absent — or worse, are actively silenced — in schools. While students experience binary collapse at an early age, many teachers remain in denial. In Karnataka, for example, one teacher argued that girls must be protected from salingakama a derogatory Kannada word for homosexuality. Such attitudes reflect not only ignorance but also harm, perpetuating shame and silence around queer existence. Heteronormativity is embedded in folk pedagogies, leading to its normalisation within the school environment, making sexuality a taboo topic. Adolescence is a formative phase where identity-building begins. While there are many popular songs that celebrate teen crushes as a mark of growing up, doesn't the queer teenager deserve the same innocent joy of their first crush on a film star, a teacher, or a neighbourhood friend? For many queer individuals, these simple yet significant moments of development are lost. I remember sitting silently while my classmates discussed boys they liked. I couldn't relate to them and thought something was wrong with me. There was no one to tell me otherwise. Only after I left school and graduated did I begin to understand that I was attracted to the same gender. By then, many milestones of adolescence had passed, unnoticed, unspoken, and unlived. Studies show that helping adolescents develop a healthy relationship with attraction, love, and sex is essential to their emotional and psychological well-being. Denying queer children the space to explore their identities does not preserve innocence, it perpetuates ignorance, loneliness, and shame. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 constitutes a 'Gender Inclusion Fund'' to make sure that transgender students get equitable education. Though the policy acknowledges and seeks to address structural barriers that transgender children face within the schooling system, other queer identities have been ignored. However, policy does not automatically translate into inclusion in practice: 28% of transgender students reported harassment in school. While a total of 61,214 transgender children are enrolled in schools (Unified District Information System for Education 2019-20), this demographic is also likely to have the highest 'out-of-school' children. How can the lived experiences of queer people inform our curriculum and make it inclusive? Inclusive education is more than just access; it means being seen, respected, and supported. Educators, school leaders, and peers must be equipped with the knowledge and sensitivity to understand and respect transgender identities essential to building affirming safe spaces in schools. Schools are not merely spaces for academic learning, but crucial grounds where identities take shape, friendships form, and young people begin to understand the world. Integrating LGBTQ+ inclusive content into curriculum is not just introducing children to something foreign but recognising the reality they already live in. They observe trans persons at traffic signals and encounter same-sex couples in social media that often reject traditional notions of love and attraction. Yet, these lived realities find no reflection in textbooks or school environments. Including queer stories, histories, and movements does not require closed-door sex-ed sessions where boys and girls are separated. This awkward separation is only in a physical sense, as we rarely consider that there might be a trans-child among them. We need what I call 'courageous conversations'. Schools are precisely where such conversations should begin because they are where a child's future is shaped or stifled. If we truly want our schools to be inclusive, safe and nurturing, we must begin by reflecting the world as diverse, complex and full of possibility. Queer children exist. They deserve representation, respect, and room to grow like everyone else. Just make them feel normal. Everything else will follow. The writer is Programme Associate, IT for Change, Bengaluru.
