The village school didn't have many formalities regarding enrollment, not requiring a unified start date within the school year.
As long as parents were willing, they could send their children to school at any time.
Regrettably, even though the country had been consistently emphasizing the implementation of nine years of compulsory education, there were not many parents in the village who were willing to send their children to school.
One reason was tradition, everyone believed that farmers' descendants should focus on farming rather than learning much; recognizing and writing their own name was considered sufficient.
Another reason was the issue of promotion rates during that era, as very few students managed to pass the examinations to advance in their studies.
Let alone a university graduate, having someone in the family who made it to a secondary vocational school was an extraordinary accomplishment.