Here's an OO implementation that I consider more readable --

use strict;

my $barry = new Person ("Barry", 67);
$barry->AddKid(
    new Person("Jenny",38,"BA") ,
    new Person("Brendan",20,"student")
    );
print "---  $barry->{NAME} 's " .
   $barry->getKidCount . " children ---\n";
   
for my $kid(@{$barry->{CHILDREN}}){
    print $kid->{$_} ."\t" for qw[NAME AGE EDUCATION];
    print "-----------\n";
}

#-----------------------------

INIT{
package Person;
use strict;

sub new{
    my ($class,$name,$age,$edu) = @_;
    my $self= bless {
        NAME=>$name||"Anonymous",  AGE=>$age||0,
        CHILDREN =>[], EDUCATION=>$edu || "",
             }, $class;
    return $self;
}

sub AddKid{
    my $self = shift;
    push @ {$self->{CHILDREN} }, @_;

}

sub getKidCount{
    my $self = shift;
    return scalar @{$self->{CHILDREN}};
}
1
}
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