Free · nothing leaves your browser

School admission age calculator

Q: Does my child's date of birth get sent to you?

No. The sum is worked out by arithmetic that runs right inside your own browser. Your child's date of birth never gets sent to us, or to anyone else; nothing about it is stored, and it disappears the moment you close the tab. We built it this way on purpose - a date of birth is among the more sensitive things you can be asked to type into a website.

This school admission age calculator takes your child’s date of birth and your state, and tells you how old they will be on that state’s cut-off date and which class they would normally join. It also shows you the rule it used, where that rule came from, and how confident we are in it.

That last part is the point. There is no single admission age in India. The cut-off dates run from 1 January to 31 December depending on where you live, at least three states changed their rule in the last eighteen months, and one of the most widely reported facts about Delhi’s rule is wrong. A calculator that hands back a confident number without showing its working is not much use here.

The short version

Put in your child's date of birth and this school admission age calculator tells you their exact age on your state's cut-off date, plus the class they would normally enter.
Doing it yourself takes four steps: find your state's cut-off date, fix it to the year the session begins, count completed years from the date of birth up to that date, then check the total against your state's minimum for Class 1.
The cut-off date, not the raw age, decides eligibility. A child who turns six on 1 October qualifies in Maharashtra but not in Karnataka, Gujarat or Delhi.
NEP 2020 lays down a 5+3+3+4 structure and wants Class 1 starting at age six, though the Ministry of Education's guidance to states carries no binding force.
Six states and union territories have not taken up the six-year rule: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and Chhattisgarh.
Delhi gets reported wrongly more often than not. Class 1 there remains at five years right through 2027-28, moving to six only from the 2028-29 session.
Nothing about your child's date of birth leaves your device. The calculation happens entirely inside your browser.

Your child’s details

Three things, and none of them are sent anywhere.

Date of birth

State, or Kendriya Vidyalaya

Only the states we could research are listed. If yours is missing, that is because we could not verify its rule, not because it has none.

Academic year

Loading…

This stays on your device. The date of birth is never sent to us or to anyone else. The whole calculation is arithmetic running inside your own browser, and nothing is saved when you close the tab.

Enter a date of birth to see the answer

You will get the exact age on your state’s cut-off date, the class your child would normally join, and what the rule actually says.

Worked example

How school admission age is actually worked out

One child, born 1 October 2020, applying for the 2026-27 session. Two states, two answers, and nothing different about the child.

Check which cut-off date your state appliesAge is reckoned on one fixed date, not on the day you apply. Karnataka uses 1 June; Maharashtra uses 31 December.
Line it up with the session you are applying toThe cut-off falls inside the calendar year the session begins. For the 2026-27 session in Karnataka, that is 1 June 2026.
Calculate the age as of that precise dateCount completed years, then months, then days from the date of birth to the cut-off. A child born 1 October 2020 is 5 years, 8 months on 1 June 2026.
Check that against the minimum your state setsKarnataka requires 6 completed years for Class 1, so that child is short by 4 months and waits a year. In Maharashtra, reckoned on 31 December 2026, the same child is 6 years, 2 months, 30 days and is eligible.

The same date of birth checked against two state rules
State	Reckoned on	Age that day	Class 1?
Karnataka	1 June 2026	5 years, 8 months	Short by 4 months
Maharashtra	31 December 2026	6 years, 2 months, 30 days	Yes

Both rows are produced by the same calculation the tool above runs, so this example cannot drift out of step with it.

The rules, state by state

Every rule we could check, and how far we got

Checked in July 2026. Where a rule could not be confirmed from a government source we have said so rather than filling the gap with a plausible guess, because a wrong cut-off date is worse than an honest blank.

Minimum age and cut-off date for Class 1 admission by state
State	Minimum age	Cut-off date	How well verified
Karnataka	6 years	1 June	Partly - confirm with the school
Maharashtra	6 years	31 December	Partly - confirm with the school
Delhi	5 years	31 March	Checked against the order
Tamil Nadu	5 years	31 July	Not confirmed - please check
Kerala	5 years	1 June	Partly - confirm with the school
Telangana	5 years	1 June	Not confirmed - please check
Uttar Pradesh	6 years, under 7	31 July	Partly - confirm with the school
West Bengal	6 years, under 7	1 January	Not confirmed - please check
Gujarat	6 years	1 June	Partly - confirm with the school
Kendriya Vidyalaya (anywhere in India)	6 years, under 8	31 March	Checked against the order

Select a state in the calculator above to see the full caveat, the source and any relaxation that applies this year.

What it all means

Reading the result without panicking

What NEP 2020 actually changed

The National Education Policy 2020 replaced the old 10+2 structure with a 5+3+3+4 design covering ages three to eighteen. The part that surprises most parents is the first five: three years of pre-school plus Class 1 and 2 are now treated as one Foundational Stage, so the three years before Class 1 count as schooling rather than as childcare. The policy states plainly that Class 1 begins at age six.

What it did not do is make that binding. Education sits on the Concurrent List, so admission age is settled state by state. The Ministry of Education has written to states three times - in March 2021, February 2023 and February 2024 - using the language of request and expectation. There is no penalty attached, which is precisely why six states and union territories have declined and still admit at five.

The cut-off date is the whole game

Parents ask what the minimum age is. The more useful question is what date the age is measured on. The worked example above takes one child and runs them through two state rules: eligible in Maharashtra on its 31 December reckoning, several months short in Karnataka on its 1 June one. Gujarat reckons on 1 June too, so the same answer applies there. Same child, same birthday, one year of difference.

This is also why a Kendriya Vidyalaya answer and a state school answer can disagree in the same city. KVs use 31 March nationally, whatever the state around them does.

If your child just misses the cut-off

This is the situation that brings most parents to a calculator like this one, usually in some distress. A few things worth holding on to. First, the rules exist because starting formal schooling too early is associated with worse outcomes, not better ones - NCERT’s own curriculum framework says the trend of pushing entry below six can damage cumulative learning. Second, a child who is among the oldest in the class rather than the youngest tends to do better, not worse. Third, schools genuinely do apply discretion: Delhi allows heads of school a month, Karnataka has relaxed its own rule two years running, and a transfer with a school leaving certificate usually sidesteps the age criterion entirely.

The year is not wasted either. The most valuable thing you can do with it is reading - letter sounds, blending, and being read to daily. That does more for a child’s first five years of school than an early start ever will.

Why some rows here say we do not know

Several of these rules could not be confirmed from a government source. In some cases the state portal was unreachable; in others the reporting contradicted itself or the only source was a commercial listing site. We have marked those rows rather than smoothing over them.

This is not false modesty. Three of the nine rules here changed within the last eighteen months, Kerala’s promised change has already slipped a year and is still not law, and Karnataka’s current relaxation applies to one session only. Anything published as settled fact in this area has a short shelf life. Check the answer here against your school before you act on it.

The NEP 2020 stages

The 5+3+3+4 structure, as the policy itself sets it out.

Foundational Stage3 years of pre-school, then Class 1 and 2 · ages 3 to 8Five years in total, and the part most parents do not realise is counted as schooling. Learning here is meant to be play-based rather than written.
Preparatory StageClass 3 to 5 · ages 8 to 11Where formal reading, writing and arithmetic take over from activity-led learning, while keeping discovery and discussion.
Middle StageClass 6 to 8 · ages 11 to 14Subject teachers replace one class teacher, and abstract subject content begins in earnest.
Secondary StageClass 9 to 12 · ages 14 to 18Four years with greater subject choice, ending in the board examinations.

Know a parent who'd want this?

A forward on WhatsApp takes ten seconds, and it means more to another parent than any ad.

Questions parents ask

About school admission age

How do I work out my child's school admission age?

Measure the age on your state's cut-off date, not the day you submit the application. Work out which cut-off your state applies, fix it to the calendar year the session starts, count the full years between the birth date and that cut-off, then check the result against your state's minimum for Class 1. A child born 1 October 2020 is 5 years, 8 months on 1 June 2026 - short of Karnataka's 6 years - but 6 years, 2 months, 30 days on 31 December 2026, which clears Maharashtra's. Same child, same birthday, one year of difference.

Is this calculator free?

Yes. There is no fee, no account to set up, nothing to download and no card needed. It works regardless of whether you ever speak to us about classes.

Does my child's date of birth get sent to you?

No. The calculation is arithmetic running inside your own browser. The date of birth is never transmitted to us or to anyone else, nothing is stored, and closing the tab removes it entirely. We built it this way deliberately, because a date of birth is one of the more sensitive things a parent can be asked to type into a website - see the privacy policy.

What is the minimum age for Class 1 admission in India?

There is no single answer for the whole country, and that is precisely why this tool exists. NEP 2020 wants Class 1 to start at six years, and the Ministry of Education has written to states three separate times asking them to fall in line. Roughly thirty states and union territories now go by six years. Six states still do not, and admit at five instead: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and Chhattisgarh. What matters for your child is the rule your own state sets, not the national recommendation.

Why does the cut-off date matter so much?

Because it decides everything for a child born near it. The dates genuinely differ: 31 March in Delhi and for Kendriya Vidyalayas, 1 June in Karnataka, Gujarat and Kerala, 31 July in Uttar Pradesh, and 31 December in Maharashtra. A child who turns six on 1 October is eligible for Class 1 in Maharashtra and is a full year short in Karnataka. Age without a reckoning date tells you nothing.

Is the Ministry of Education's six-year rule compulsory?

No, and people get this wrong often. Education sits on the Concurrent List of the Constitution, which makes school admission age a state subject in practice. The Ministry's letters from March 2021, February 2023 and February 2024 use the words requested and expected, never directed, and a state that declines faces no penalty. That is exactly why six states have simply not adopted it.

Is the Delhi rule really still five years?

That is right, for both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 sessions. In June 2025 a Delhi circular went round widely, and papers read it as pushing Class 1 to a six-year entry age from 2026-27. A fuller circular followed in October 2025, and it lays out the real phasing: Class 1 keeps its five-to-six age band right through until 2028-29. So if somewhere you saw a claim that a five-year-old cannot start Class 1 in Delhi, that claim came from the earlier, June circular.

Do CBSE schools have their own age rule?

We were unable to find one, and we will not claim CBSE has no rule as if that were an established fact. What we do know is that CBSE-affiliated private schools must follow the age norms set by the state they are located in - Delhi's circular applies to recognised unaided private schools, and Maharashtra's order covers schools under every management and every board. Kendriya Vidyalayas stand apart as the genuine exception: they follow one national rule of six years as on 31 March.

What about LKG and UKG ages?

Pre-primary ages appear here only for places with an official published rule: Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Kendriya Vidyalaya Balvatika. Karnataka has no legal framework at all for pre-primary - its own minister has admitted as much - so any LKG age you see quoted for it comes from commercial school-listing sites, not from law. We are not willing to print those figures as rules, so Karnataka's pre-primary ages do not appear here.

My state is not in the list. Why?

Because we could not confirm its rule against a source we trust. Leaving it out is a deliberate choice, not an oversight. A parent who plans a child's schooling around a confidently stated date that turns out wrong is worse off than one who is simply told we do not know. Check with your state education department or the school itself.

Can the school make an exception?

Yes, quite often. In Delhi, heads of school are expressly permitted to relax the age limit by one month, at their own discretion. Karnataka has done the same, relaxing its rule for two years running. Children with disabilities can get a multi-year relaxation in several states, and a child moving schools with a school leaving certificate is usually let off the age criterion entirely. What is written here is the published rule - the actual decision rests elsewhere.

The pages parents most often open straight after this one.

Online tuition for Class 1
What the first year of school actually asks of a child, and how to support it.
Teach phonics at home, free
The single most useful thing to do with a child in the year before Class 1.
Maths worksheet generator
Printable practice for Class 1 to 5, clamped to what NCERT actually contains.
CBSE explained for parents
How this board operates at primary level, and where it differs from ICSE and the state boards.
Spelling test with audio
For once your child is in school and the weekly spelling list starts.
Online tuition fees
Every plan and price published openly, with no form to fill in first.

The other free tools

All free, all in the browser, none of them asking your child to sign in.

Percentage to CGPA calculator
Turn a percentage score into a CGPA using the CBSE 9.5 scale. Walk through the working and point out cases where the conversion breaks down.
Class 9 and 10
CGPA to percentage calculator
CBSE specifies a 9.5 conversion factor for turning a CGPA into a percentage. Go through the calculation one step at a time instead of jumping straight to the answer.
Class 9 and 10
Dictation words with audio
Word lists for dictation, sorted by class, read aloud by the browser at whatever speed you set, plus an answer sheet you can print.
Class 1 to 10
Spelling test
Your child types each word as we read it aloud in a sentence. Each class has twenty real words, and every one is checked straight away.
Class 1 to 10
Times tables race
Indian schools require times tables practice up to 20, not just 12, so that is where our practice goes.
Class 2 to 8
English grammar quiz
Grammar questions covering nouns, opposites, articles, tenses and more come to your child at their own class level, each one with an explanation attached.
Class 1 to 10
Maths worksheet generator
Pick your class, subject and level, and you will get a fresh A4 worksheet, ready to print, with its own answers sheet attached.
Class 1 to 5
Mental maths sprint
Sixty seconds of quick sums, pitched at your child's class. Speed only counts once the method is solid.
Class 1 to 10
Science quiz
Science questions grouped by year from Class 6 through 10, with explanations for every answer.
Class 6 to 10
General knowledge quiz
General knowledge, sorted by class level, with a focus on India: its states, symbols, geography, history, and the solar system.
Class 1 to 10
Opposites and synonyms
Sorted by class, these vocabulary exercises place every word inside a sentence so it actually sticks with the child.
Class 1 to 8
Opposites, Synonyms and Idioms: Hindi Word Quiz
In vyakaran, opposites, synonyms and idioms in Hindi are where the most marks are won, and they turn up in three different formats.
Class 3 to 10
Life Cycles and the Water Cycle
Cycles have no true starting point, so children can order the stages from wherever they like. The cycles covered: butterfly, frog, seed, water, digestion.
Class 3 to 7
Word Problems - Which Operation?
Wrong answers in word problems usually trace back to the wrong operation, not to the sums themselves. Before doing anything else, work out which operation is needed.
Class 2 to 5
Clock - Learn to Tell the Time
Set the time by dragging the hands. The hour hand slides smoothly between the numbers, something most children's clocks fail to show correctly.
Class 1 to 4
Fractions on a Number Line
Children place fractions at their correct spots on a number line, a skill pizza diagrams do not teach. Fractions are numbers with an exact position of their own, and Class 5 students need to grasp that.
Class 3 to 6
Human Body Parts
Drag each label onto its correct spot on the body diagram, beginning with the sense organs and then moving to the internal organs. Labels are given in both English and Hindi.
Class 1 to 5
Drag and Drop Indian States on the Map Quiz
Children drag states and capitals to their correct spots. There is no picking from options here, only genuine understanding. A blank map is where real geography learning begins.
Class 3 to 8
Word Search
Six packs from first words to science and maths vocabulary, on a grid generated fresh every round.
Class 1 to 8
Memory Match
Flip cards let children match pairs across times tables, opposites, irregular plurals and Hindi matras. Three subjects, six packs in total.
Class 1 to 5
Number Pop
This is an arcade-style maths game rather than a quiz. Bubbles rise upward, and the task is to pop only the ones that match the rule. Speed picks up as the score climbs.
Class 1 to 8
Hindi Word Builder - build the Hindi word
Build Hindi words with letter tiles and learn where matras belong. The i matra causes confusion because it is placed before the letter yet pronounced after it.
Class 1 to 3
Phonics sound match
Children still learning to decode words benefit from reading aloud, practising opening sounds, closing sounds, blending and rhyme.
Class 1 to 3
Marks percentage calculator
Type in the marks for each subject to see your total, the percentage this works out to, and an indicative CBSE CGPA.
Parents and students

Answered by a real teacher

Starting school next year?

Want to discuss readiness rather than just eligibility? Message us. We will give you a straight answer, even when that answer is that your child is fine as they are and needs nothing extra.

Message us on WhatsApp Other ways to contact us