The Tasmanian Government has ditched its plan to lower the compulsory school starting age.

The state had planned to lower the age from five to four-and-a-half years did not go over well with the childcare sector, parents and teachers.

Tasmania’s Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff said new draft legislation to be released next month will give parents a choice.

“The compulsory starting age will remain at five years so our children will be required to start school in the prep year at five years old, just as they currently are,” Mr Rockliff said.

“But if parents feel their child is ready, they can start six months early at four-and-a-half.”

Parents will also be able to send their children to kindergarten from the age of three-and-a-half.

Mr Rockliff said $4.9 million a year will be spent on extra teacher assistants when the change comes into effect in 2020.

“While I acknowledge that prep year in many schools is predominantly play-based, it can be difficult to enable a play-based curriculum in a classroom with over 18 or 20 students with a single teacher,” he said.

Opposition education spokesperson Michelle O'Byrne said the move was confusing for parents and difficult for teachers.

“There are occasions when we have kinder preps, so there's possibly going to be a three-year age difference in one classroom that's not sustainable and it's not what's best for children,” she said.

The Early Childcare Association says that even though the younger starting age is not compulsory, the childcare sector would still lose out.

The group believes parents would be swayed by the difference in cost - $5,000 a year for child care compared to $200 for kindergarten.

Kristen Desmond from the Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby says schools must be properly equipped.

“It means having more speech therapists, more occupational therapists, more school psychologists in place, as they move through, because your early years are really critical,” she told the ABC.

“Because if you have a good experience that means you are engaged in learning moving forward.”