In India, homeschooling is an educational option where parents manage their children’s education from the convenience of their homes. This indicates that the youngster does not attend a traditional school. However, under parental supervision, he or she continues his or her education at home. Every family has its reasons for adopting homeschooling. However, these are typically associated with the child’s unique learning demands or the unresolved issues in standard teaching approaches.
Children typically physically attend school courses. However, the rise of COVID-19 has made online learning more widely accepted, and more parents are homeschooling their children and have no intention of returning. Even though homeschooling is now legal and widely accepted, some issues remain. Parents should consider the pros and downsides of homeschooling compared to formal schooling.
Benefits of Homeschooling
Parents cite religion, socialisation concerns, various challenges in public schools, improved learning possibilities, and spending more time with their children as the main reasons for homeschooling. However, is homeschooling superior to other teaching methods? The following are some benefits of homeschooling.
Flexibility in the classroom
Parents seek high-quality education that may enhance their kids’ skills and moral principles while making studying enjoyable. Due to the well-known circumstances of traditional education, they are becoming more conscious of the necessity for learning alternatives. Parents oversee their children’s education when they homeschool.
Efficient and Meaningful Learning
Homeschooling places a high priority on academic inputs and outcomes that keep track of children’s learning needs. It was found that homeschooling is effective in improving academic success in three ways:
• by providing one-on-one instruction aimed at supporting learning,
• by allowing a safe and healthy learning environment,
• by providing adequate learning support for gifted and special needs children.
It was concluded that learning at home has no learning restrictions based on a textbook and standardised curriculum because it may occur both inside and outside the home and covers academic and practical knowledge.
Benefits to Social, Mental, and Physical Health
School experiences are important in determining a person’s route to growth and well-being. Accordingly, homeschooled adolescents were found to have greater character strengths and fewer risky health behaviours later in life than their peers who attended public schools. They were also more inclined to volunteer, be forgiving, develop a sense of purpose, and participate in healthier behaviours. As for adjusting to college, 185 students from various private and public colleges and universities were surveyed. The study found that homeschooled students did not significantly differ from traditionally educated students in terms of self-esteem and had substantially lower levels of depression.
Removes needless rivalry between peers
A kid can form peer groups and learn social skills by attending a regular school, but it can also lead to needless and perhaps destructive rivalry. Students’ mental health and social values may be impacted by the intense pressure to achieve, and the competition for grades may cause them to adopt a negative attitude toward learning. Bullying may also occur in children, and as a result, they may suffer from trauma that may impact their confidence for the rest of their lives.
Negative aspects of homeschooling
There are some disadvantages to Homeschooling as well. It was found that homeschoolers lack peers, a happy upbringing, desire, healthy completion, and positive socialisation since they are primarily alone. They might not have access to the standard school facilities, such as playgrounds, labs, and libraries. Due to their constant presence with their children, parents could also have to cope with behavioural and psychological problems.
To inspire, instruct, and educate youngsters, they must become knowledgeable about their hobbies. They sometimes have to deal with unfriendly families and the time and money it takes to find suitable curricula, books, tutors, playgroups, and support groups. These are the disadvantages of homeschooling that are most commonly brought up.
Insufficient Socialisation in Actual Life
Socialisation is the most common concern for individuals new to homeschooling. Homeschooled children typically don’t have many opportunities to engage with their peers. It encourages reliance on parents, fails to provide diverse connections, and inherently postpones a child’s personality development. Children who are homeschooled are typically more involved in enriched programs. These activities, however, are frequently selective and involve individuals from comparable socioeconomic levels, backgrounds, and values.
As a result, young kids must regularly be exposed to social issues in public schools; otherwise, they won’t have the abilities needed to adjust to adult conditions. Thus, homeschooling diminishes the. Children may encounter various origins and ideas in most public schooling.
Curriculum Differentiation
Homeschooled students may lack the resources necessary to evaluate their behaviour, attitudes, knowledge, and skills in light of the objectives of public institution education systems. Even parents find it challenging to assess, diagnose, and choose the curriculum and teaching that best suits their children’s requirements because homeschooling is designed to meet their needs. Standardised exams are tightly linked to the curriculam of public and private schools, whereas homeschoolers select examinations based on practicality. Put another way, parents might not adhere to the institutional school curriculum, which is designed to assist their kids in doing well on exams.
Issues with Facilities and Resources
Worries regarding facilities and resources raise the question of whether homeschooling is difficult. This may be the case in this situation, particularly when viewed through the eyes of mentors. Instructors may lack the tools or space necessary to provide adequate education. Despite the sequence and integrated curriculum currently accessible for homeschooling, a family cannot provide many varied enrichment activities.
Loss of Experiences
Homeschooled children inevitably lose some interaction since they spend more time at home, even if we note in the “advantages” section that they still develop socially. They could have fewer friends, feel disconnected from their classmates, and lack experience connecting with individuals from other backgrounds. They may have a minimal and prejudiced perspective on the world. In the worst situations, kids could be raised with little understanding of societal norms and be bigoted and ignorant. They may be at a disadvantage as a result. (At assembly, for example). Students who receive their education at home do not experience these elements and could feel they have missed out.
The Homeschooling’s Future
The education system underwent a significant shift when parents were perceived as “accidental homeschoolers,” and homeschooling was accepted as a standard educational method. Even if homeschooling is becoming increasingly popular, parents, mentors, and the educational system as a whole still need to consider how this learning platform may be enhanced to better serve kids and families that choose this method.
