in india, "primary education" means the 'nursery', the 'kindergarten' and four years of regular schooling thereafter. admission to nursery classes is for children above two years so that the age is 6+ when entering class i. children are taught language (mother tongue and english) reading/writing skills, basic arithmetic and quite a good amount of general information about the country, people, statesmen, great people, flora &amp; animals. however, this is true only for schools in the urban areas. rural schools do not have nursery or kindergarten; they admit straight at class i when the child is six. further, the rural schools use the mother tongue as medium of instruction, not resorting to english in any way. primary education is free in government schools. moreover, rural primary schools offer free mid-day meals to children (the government pays for it) so that the drop out rate comes down. states of west bengal, maharashtra, manipur, nagaland and kerala have done very good work in this way of spreading primary education.