'Everyone says we should have a standard starting age and fall into line - we would like to see it happen but it appears there is little political will to address it,' Norm Hart, president of the Australian Primary Principals' Association, told News Corp.
In most states, children are about four-and-a-half years old when they start school. But children in the Northern Territory can be as young as four, and in Tasmania they have to be at least five.
Children in Australia start school younger than almost anywhere else in the developed world, up to two years ahead of students in top-performing countries such as Finland and Korea.
The Australian Parents Council told SBS World News in a statement that “in a country the size of Australia it is a nonsense to have different starting ages and names for the early years across the states. This situation should have been addressed many years go."
The Abbott government maintains that starting ages are a matter for the states.
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