The Goa government has moved to standardise the entry age for formal schooling by proposing a key amendment to its education law. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant tabled the Goa School Education (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the state legislative assembly, seeking to raise the minimum age for admission to Class 1 from five-and-a-half years to six years.
The proposed amendment changes Section 18 of the Goa School Education Act, 1984, which currently permits children aged five years and six months to begin Class 1. If the bill is passed, children who have not completed six years of age by June 1 of the academic year will no longer be eligible for admission to Class 1 or its equivalent in any recognised school in Goa.
To ensure that children already preparing for admission are not adversely affected, the government has included a one-time exemption for the 2025–26 academic year. Under this provision, children who complete five-and-a-half years by June 1, 2025, will still be allowed to join Class 1.
The amendment also introduces stricter age norms for first-time admissions to higher classes. It states that after deducting the number of years of standard schooling between Class 1 and the class a student seeks admission to, the child’s age must not fall below six years. This aims to prevent irregular age-based entries into the school system.
Chief Minister Sawant clarified that the change is purely regulatory, intended to bring Goa’s education framework in line with national standards under NEP 2020 and the Right to Education Act, 2009. He added that the amendment will not have any financial impact on the state.
Once enacted, the revised law will replace earlier provisions that allowed varying and lower cutoff ages across different academic years, ensuring a uniform and nationally aligned entry age for primary education in Goa.
