The Right Age for a Child to enter Secondary School

Secondary school is the second level of education around the world. Education which involves learning comes in stages. These stages must commensurate with the learners age. Many parents and teaching professionals have had to argue about the role of age in their children’s level of education. 

Teachers in the Secondary School have expressed their worries over the rate of underage students in Nigeria Secondary Schools. These worries stem from the lower standard academic expectation.

In this article, we would be reviewing the stages of learning development which would lead us to the right age expected of a child in Secondary school.

According to Jean Piaget a Cognitive development Learning Psychologist. He defined cognitive development as the changes that take place in the process of thinking and memorization. He believed that the learning process involves assimilation and accommodation. This learning takes effect when the learner adjusts new experiences to fit prior concepts and adjust concepts to fit new experiences.

However,  the long term developments are the main focus of Jean Piaget Theory. He proposed that cognitive development begins at birth through the end of adolescence. These development stages were categorized into four sequential order.

Characteristics of Cognitive Learning Development Stages

• The stages happen in the same order.
• No stage is skipped.
• Each stage is a significant transformation of the previous stage.
• Every new stage incorporates the previous stages.

The Four Major Cognitive Development by Piaget

 

 The Sensorimotor Stage

The sensorimotor stage begins at birth up to age 2. At this period, infant think using their senses and motor actions. They achieve this by touching, looking, listening, manipulating objects, biting and chewing.

These activities which aid their cognitive development enable them learn about the world around them.

By constantly manipulating, touching, biting, chewing and looking at objects and events. Infants become able to organize their senses and actions.

The Preoperational Stage

The preoperational stage begins from 2 to 7 years. During this stage, children learn to use their abilities to represent objects but in a less logical and organized way. An activity that explains this is their ability to improvise and imitate through drama.

Through mental imagery, children at this stage learn about the world. They speak and act out what they think an object of event is.

The Concrete Operational Stage

The concrete operational stage starts from age 7 to 11years. During this stage, children who are at the primary school level are able to basically represent their ideas in a logical manner. The ability to logically represent ideas, allows children at this period to solve problems and get better at academic tasks. Children are better able to follow and adhere to rules and instructions guiding  learning. They are better able to operate on concrete objects and events. One major difference between the pre-operational stage and concrete operational stage is their ability to follow directive in sequential order. While the children at the concrete operational stage are able to do that, the former will forget or find it confusing. 

The Formal Operational Stage

According to Piaget, this stage begins from 11 years and above. At this period, the child is able to reason about concrete and abstract objects and events. Teachers can pose hypothetical questions to students at this stage. Children are able to relate concrete objects and events to abstract settings.

This goes to say that the more advanced in age children become, the more they are able to develop abilities needed for better learning stages.

What is the Right Age for a Child to Enter Secondary School

By ensuring the right age for a child to get into secondary school, you are ensuring cognitive, motor and emotional balance. This way the child is physically, and mentally fit.

When children are rightly placed in class, they become mind ready to face the world. They are able to solve concrete and abstract problems. This can mostly be achieved at the formal operational stage. A child is said to be fit and age right for secondary school from the age of 11years.