If you are in your 30s or older, you would have said this at least once: that, when we were young we started going to school only after the age of five. These days the child is barely two, not yet able to even express himself or herself properly, and off they go to the playschool, with colourful bags on their backs. They should be in playgrounds instead of those, well, gulags. Some of us think it is a sad picture, some think, the world is moving on and in this competitive age, the kids may as well start preparing for it right now.

Now, Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal has said that three years of age is too early to start nursery and he has suggested to the Delhi government to consider starting formal education or class 1 when the child is six years of age. The proposal, if implemented, should signal parents to take it easy. However, working couples are not likely to take the cue. Their children will in all probability spend a year more in playschools, which incidentally have formed a cottage industry of sorts with no regulation. Do you think it is high time we stop sending two or three-year-old toddlers to 'playschools'?