19th July 2016 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Whether it is due to dissatisfaction with the UK school system, highly variable and geographically dependent teaching standards, or the flexibility of evading the conventional school system, the popularity of home schooling has increased massively in recent years. The UK now has around 45,000 home schooled children, around ten times more than most other European countries. Numbers in the UK have risen by 65% in just five years, with at least one in 200 children now learning at home. Somewhat worryingly, no one knows the exact number of children as, despite new legislation in 2006, parents are not always obliged to inform local authorities. But one thing is clear, the number is rising fast, particularly for primary aged children, and the trend does not appear to be slowing.
Despite its popularity in the UK, home schooling is in fact illegal in many countries. This stems from the legal framework of compulsory education making schooling mandatory over a certain age range in order to improve literacy. As a result of the protestant reformation spreading across Europe, the UK introduced compulsory primary education in its original form in the early 1600s. This has developed into today’s legislation which requires parents to “make sure [their] child receives a full-time education from the age of 5” but, crucially, they “don’t have to follow the national curriculum.” This leaves the door open to alternative learning styles more suited to a child or family’s needs.
The increased popularity of home education is a result of what many view as a prolonged period of weak educational policy, leaving teachers, parents and students feeling the need to take it into their own hands. The reasons for deciding to educate children at home are diverse and complex, but the factors affecting the decision appear to fall into two main categories: dissatisfaction with formal education systems, or individual student requirements. Children with special needs or specific religious restrictions are more likely to be home schooled; however, more worryingly, institutional factors such as lack of places in local schools, bullying and dissatisfaction with the quality of formal education are frequently a major reason for taking children out of school. Other parents blame the rigidity of formal schooling, from attendance and holidays restrictions, to the increased pressure put on children from the endless testing. Finally, some schools have been accused of pushing struggling students towards home schooling so as to remove them from their exam result statistics in order to meet targets.
A personalised curriculum and individual attention benefits both the brightest and less capable students who are otherwise bored or left behind in a normal classroom. Some argue that a more self-directed learning environment is more conducive to developing the skills needed later on in university and the current job market. Beyond the potential impact on the individual child’s progression, home schooling offers much greater flexibility to adapt to a family’s lifestyle, with no mandatory school schedule, holidays or even location.
On the other hand, the quality of teaching is entirely dependent on the parents’ ability to understand and teach a broad range of subjects over the entire school age range, or alternatively to afford to employ a tutor who is able to do so. At primary school level this may be less of an issue, however almost half of home schooled children in the UK are of secondary school age. This begs the question of whether the quality of teaching is sufficient at such a level. While the government does theoretically provide support to parents who make this choice, home schooling has been described as a ‘postcode lottery’, with the level of support varying wildly between local councils. In response to this, several charities and educational organisations supply an increasing number of online resources, which can be supplemented with private tuition. The final concern is the impact on the social development of a child. The value of formal schooling is not only in the academic education children receive, but also learning interpersonal skills such as how to manage their behaviour and feelings, how to communicate and cooperate with a diverse range of other children and adults, and how to deal with change. This experience is distinctly lacking in a home schooling environment, but can be introduced through (often expensive) extracurricular activities.
The rise in the number of home schooled children will hopefully push for a better, more consistent support system and a better way to keep track of students’ progress. Hopefully it will also highlight the increasing scepticism of the UK education system as a whole, and result in a more meaningful change such that parents do not feel the need to remove their children from schools in the first place.