The school starting age
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An extract from Class Rules: the truth about Scottish schools by James McEnaney.
By James McEnaney
In recent years one fairly radical idea – at least for Scotland – has attracted increasing levels of attention and widespread support: changing the age at which pupils start school. Right now, children in Scotland start primary school at either four or five – but many believe that this should not happen until the age of seven.
Although we naturally assume that our traditional approach represents good sense and normality, the truth is actually quite different. Across the world, fewer than 15% of countries send their children to school aged four or five, and almost all of them have direct historical links to the uk through the British Empire. The overwhelming majority of countries actually send their children to school aged six, a full two years later than some children in Scotland head off to primary school, and there are more countries with a starting age of seven than there are those ...
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