CAP says the government shouldn’t become a roadblock for students, who are just two weeks younger but have already reached the “mental and reading age” of 6-year-olds.

It says these kids are expected to go through a “stressful evaluation process (saringan)” to prove that they have reached the same level.

The first stage is a written test and if they pass, then there is an oral interview.

Since the tests are centralised and are conducted on two different dates, “the process deters parents from registering their children and is stressful for the children who have to travel long distances to take the tests”, it says.

CAP also targeted the government for the time it spends on the preparations to conduct the two-stage exam when the evaluation could be very easily done.

The association said since these children will be joining the same school and classes, they should take the same test as the 6-year-olds for the purpose of streaming within a few days of joining the school.

“The ministry needs to be innovative in doing things to bring about improvement and this calls for moving away from established ways,” CAP says.

“It should not hold back the education of children with a tedious stressful ‘saringan’ that deters parents of these children from registering them for early admission.

Children must have completed six years of age on Jan 1 of the year they are entering school. However, since 2003, an exception is given to children who are up to two weeks younger (born Jan 2-15) if they have reached the “mental and reading age” of six-year-olds.