School at age 4 is ruled out of bounds

"The overwhelming feedback during the select committee process was that children shouldn't start school before they had turned 5." Education Minister Chris Hipkins

Parents keen to send their children to school when they are 4 years old will no longer be able to do so when the Government changes the rules next year.

Under the previous government, cohort entry was introduced which allowed schools to adopt the optional policy of allowing pupils to start school ahead of their fifth birthday.

That meant parents could, from next year, start their child up to six weeks before their fifth birthday in term one, two and three, and up to eight weeks before their fifth birthday in term four.

The idea behind cohort entry, which was introduced as part of the Education (Update) Amendment Bill, was that children who turned 5 during a school term didn’t have to wait until after their birthday to start school.

Labour, the Greens and NZ First had concerns about the policy at the time it was introduced, saying children could get ‘‘lost’’ in a system they were not ready for.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins told on Wednesday that schools that wanted to adopt the policy at the start of next year could still do so.

However, an amendment would be progressed next year ‘‘as part of a wider tidy up of the Education Act’’ that would limit cohort entry to children over 5 years old.

‘‘The overwhelming feedback during the select committee process was that children shouldn’t start school before they had turned 5,’’ he said. The Ministry of Education has been asked to draft an amendment to the law that limits the cohort entry.

Families are not legally required to send their child to school until their sixth birthday.

National Party education spokesperson Nikki Kaye said the Government taking away parents’ ability to have their children start school early was ‘‘nanny-state and ideologically driven’’.

Hipkins ‘‘believes he knows better than parents and will change the law so that children cannot start school before the age of 5’’, Kaye said. ‘‘The law change will mean that some children will have to wait longer to start at the school that their parents have chosen for them if that school has adopted cohort entry.’’

Kaye said the only good news was that Hipkins was not completely getting rid of cohort entry.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the change focused on ‘‘both educational outcomes but also what’s in the best interest of kids’’.

‘‘I think what Minister Hipkins is looking to do there is make sure that it’s as workable as possible and we’ve got the flexibility there for parents to make what they think is the best decision in the best interest of their kids.’’

She said Kaye’s criticism that it was nanny-state was a phrase thrown around ‘‘willy-nilly’’.

Lynda Stuart, the president of the country’s largest teacher union, NZEI, said her organisation supported the move by Hipkins to limit cohort entry to 5 years old.

‘‘We were quite clear at the time that cohort entry came through that we weren’t supportive of it for younger children. Children already start school early enough as it is,’’ she said.

‘‘New Zealand schools start at a much younger age than other countries across the globe.’’

Stuart said schools already operated a system where children could come into school before they turned 5 and get to know the environment and meet their teacher.

‘‘That’s fine but starting school formally before 5 is a concern,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s actually about the child and not what suits the administration of the school.’’