What Are The Reasons for Choosing Homeschooling & Methods ?

In recent years homeschooling has gained popularity in India as an alternative way of educating children, and more and more children are getting homeschooled (though not as many as in the US).  Since many of us are new to the concept, we have questions in mind such as what is Homeschooling, why do some parents go for this option, what does it involve, is it legal in India, what curriculum to follow, how can one get admission in a college after homeschooling and many more. So let’s find the answer to these questions.

What is Homeschooling?

Homeschooling is an alternative to the traditional education system. Here, a child is educated at home instead of school. Parents may choose to teach the children on their own or appoint tutors.  But it is not just about educating them at home. It involves various approaches such as unschooling, learning led by the interest of the child where the pace is set by the child, where one can learn what he likes instead of learning the standard set of subjects in the stipulated time, learning led by the ability of the child and their learning style. Some children get enrolled in educational institutes or centers to attend specialized courses or workshops or get tutored at home by tutors of their choice.

Some parents even opt to send the children to school for some years and do partial homeschooling.               

What Are The Reasons for Choosing Homeschooling?

Though there are numerous reasons such as religion, safety, flexibility and so on, for opting out of school and to go in for homeschooling, the most common reason homeschoolers in India say is that they are not satisfied with the current education system, as the system is more to do with tests, competitions, marks, completing the syllabus within specified time, forcing children to learn only in a specific way, repetitive usage of worksheets though the child may not require the drills, not taking into consideration the child’s interest, child’s readiness, ability, learning style, and child’s needs i.e. child might be gifted, athletic, physically very active, might have learning disability or medical conditions such as ADHD, Autism or SPD and so on.  

Most schools can’t afford to follow the individualized approach in learning but can limit learning only to books and classrooms due to the larger class strength. In homeschooling, parents can take care of each of these aspects based on a child’s need. Children are able to pursue other fields of interest such as photography, singing, playing a musical instrument, painting, pottery, etc. along with their other academic studies due to the flexibility in time and choice of subjects. 

Is Homeschooling Legal in India?

According to Right of children to free and compulsory education 2009 act (RTE 2009 act), every child between the age 6 and 14 has the right to get educated and elementary education shall be provided only through recognized government and private schools.  The act also states the consequences for the school if they refuse to admit a child. But it doesn’t state any consequence for the parents who don’t send the child to school. So homeschooling parents were hinging upon the ambiguity in the act for a while.
An affidavit filed by the Government of India on July 18, 2012, in response to a writ petition filed by a 12-yr-old Shreya Sahai who wanted to be home schooled to pursue her interest in photography and music, states that "Parents who voluntarily opt for alternate forms of schooling may continue to do so. The RTE Act does not come in the way of such alternate schooling methodologies or declare such form of education as illegal." The affidavit also clarifies that the Act is with regard to the rights of children, and is not a compulsion. It states “The compulsion is on the appropriate government and the local authority to provide free education to all children up to 14 years”. [Know - Homeschooling Advantages & Disadvantages]

So the compulsion is not on the citizens to be educated in a conventional school. So parents can rest assured that homeschooling in India is legal.

How to Start Homeschooling?

Learning happens anywhere and anytime. So one can start homeschooling at any age. Before deciding to homeschool, one needs to ask himself a few questions and do some research to find the following.

• Why are you looking for an alternate education?
• What worries you the most about the modern system of education?
• What are the ways in which homeschooling is going to be the solution to the problem?
• What does education mean to you and your family?
• What is/are the learning style(s) of your child?
• Is there a dedicated adult available at home at all times to understand the child’s learning needs, to plan and schedule activity based on a child’s interest?
• Is your family socially active so you can help the homeschooling child to connect with other homeschoolers and socialize comfortably with people of all ages? 
• Read and gather information on various educational philosophies ((Montessori, play way, Waldorf, etc.)
• List down the education philosophy that you think would be suitable for your child based on your expectation from the education system.
• Gather information on the local homeschoolers group in the city. There are many local homeschooling groups in major cities of India who meet either weekly or monthly to organize field trips, conduct workshops and discuss the curriculum and methodology they follow. So it can of great help to be associated with these groups.
• Read books and blogs on homeschooling to understand how others succeeded in the journey.
• Gather the resources (online curriculum, homeschooling websites, blogs) and materials (find suitable publishers, lab equipment, selective and suitable children’s literature, informational books, encyclopedia)

 
Homeschooling Methods

Homeschooling methods may range from unschooling to following one’s own curriculum or a standard national or international curriculum.
In homeschool, the term Unschooling means natural or spontaneous learning. During the unschooling process, the school is made non-compulsory, children are pulled away from power of grades, ranks and from being judged, away from the compulsion to stick to the schedule or the compulsion to follow fixed curriculum that is taught in a specific way but instead the focus is on making them self-initiated learners driven by their own interest.  In the unschooling approach, the educators – i.e. parents or tutors, act as facilitators and the learning is led by the child’s interest. [Know - Pros & Cons of Homeschooling to Your Child]

In most cases, unschooling is for those who don’t worry much about the certificates, exams, competition and working for someone though others also follow the unschooling method to relieve the child from stress.  

How Do Homeschoolers Integrate with the Regular Board Exams?

CBSE and ICSE do not allow any student to appear as independent candidates for 10th or 12th exams. At the moment there are only 2 options available for homeschooling children.

• Cambridge International Examination (CIE) is the only board that allows private candidates for IGCSE (10th-grade exam). On completing IGCSE exam, the student gets issued the IGCSE certificate, the statement of marks and migration certificate by CIE. The students can apply for any junior college by submitting the eligibility certificate provided by CIE and equivalency certificate provided by each individual university which is made available on the CIE website.  
• NIOS a.k.a NOS – The National  Institute of Open Schooling has a program called Open Basic Education (OBE) which aims at providing distant education for children of age 6 to 14. It has separate courses for different age groups such as elementary education, secondary education course and senior secondary education course through which students can appear for all grade exams. NIOS will provide a mark sheet and the migration certificate with which one can apply for junior colleges.

Note: After RTE 2009 act came in effect, it was planned to make NIOS, invalid in 2010. But taking into consideration the fact that there is still a significant number of out of school children, the OBE program has been extended till 31st March 2017.  Many homeschooling parents go with the hope that NIOS would further be extended for many years to come.
 
Reading Suggestion: Must-have books for homeschooling parents.

1. Teach your own – The John Holt book of Homeschooling
2. How children learn by John Holt