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Mandatory age for schooling from 5 to 18 years old pushed
»8th grade requirement to be increased to 12th grade
Rep. George Camacho (R-Saipan) has introduced a bill requiring schooling to begin for all children at 5 years old, one year earlier than the current mandate of 6 years old. His bill also requires that 8th grade education requirement be increased to 12th grade, and that all persons below 18 years old must attend school unless they have already obtained high school diplomas.
Camacho said yesterday that the Public School System and the Board of Education “understand the importance of, and support, requiring kindergarten four our children and extending the age from 16 to 18 or high school equivalent.”
“Based on the last Education Committee meeting, they support the concept and idea,” Camacho told Saipan Tribune. PSS and BOE could not be immediately reached for comment as of press time.
House Bill 18-194 has been referred to the House Committee on Education.
Camacho, in his bill, said the measure’s goal is to “improve education in the Commonwealth by providing opportunities for learning earlier and later in each student’s life.”
The bill says students that attend the Head Start program or kindergarten have better learning advantages over students who have not.
It says it’s in the CNMI education’s best interest “to require schooling to begin for all children at the age of 5 years as opposed to the current mandate of 6 years of age.”
“The Commonwealth Legislature further finds that the current goal embodied in Commonwealth law of an 8th grade education for all persons is inadequate to the goal of educational excellence and the realities of the 21st century economy,” it adds.
