Home-schooling
Elective Home Education (EHE),
also known as home-schooling a type of education that most of us forget about. Most
of us think that home-schooling isn’t very popular here in the UK, however
statistics suggest that there could be as many as 50,000 children being
home-schooled today in the UK [1]. By the Education Act of 1996, parents must give
him a full education suitable for his age and ability and to support and help
with any Special Educational Needs (SEN) that he may have [2]. There aren’t
many rules and regulations when it comes to home-schooling. Parents don’t have
to follow a strict 9-3 timetable, don’t have to teach the national curriculum
and they don’t have to register their children with the Local Education
Authority (LEA). They also do not have to mark any work or give them any formal
assessments, parents just teach what they feel is necessary for their child to
survive in society [3].
The big question is, is this an
effective way of teaching? Statistics show that more than 80% of taught at home
achieve over 50% on standardised tests, however more than half of these
children score between 70-80% [4]. There could be many reasons for deciding
that an education at home is better for your child, these reasons could be due
to Special Educational Needs (SEN), bullying or for some, a parent’s chosen school
for their child is full and they would rather teach them themselves than send
them to a school they aren’t enthusiastic about[5].
Whilst the government does
support the right of parents being able to choose whether to teach their
children themselves, it doesn’t entirely support it [6]. As the spokesman for
the department of children, schools and families stated that “We have the best ever generation
of teachers working with a broad and engaging curriculum and record investment
in both mainstream and special schools. And Ofsted reports that behaviour is
generally good in the vast majority of schools [7]”.
Home-schooling isn’t a recent trend in education,
home-schooling has been carried out for hundreds of years. For centuries,
families couldn’t afford to pay tutors to educate their children, so the each
member of the family would teach the children all they knew [8].
Overall, I believe that home-schooling can be an effective
method of education as the children are getting proper attention from an adult
so their work may be monitored more, and it can be much more stress-free
because it comes without the risks of bullying, stress, and exams which can be
very beneficial to the child in terms of paying more attention. On the other
hand, I am not particularly in favour of this type of education because the government
doesn’t require home-schooled children to complete any exams or they don’t monitor
the content in their lessons, then no one knows for definite that the children
are getting a sufficient education.
[2] Lewis, C. 2013
[3] Lewis, C. 2013
4] Lewis, C. 2013
[9] Lewis, C. 2013
This is one girls opinion on home school education and state schools! Worth a watch!
This is one girls opinion on home school education and state schools! Worth a watch!
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