Homeschooling is becoming increasingly popular around the world. It is legal and recognized in most of the countries around the world. United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia are some of the countries where this concept or movement is prevalent and acceptable.
However, in some countries like Germany, it has been entirely outlawed while others consider it socially unacceptable or undesirable.
The restrictions and laws with respect to homeschooling differ with respect to the country and the government, but still, the prevalence and growing knowledge regarding the same is visible worldwide. There are varied reasons why parents opt for homeschooling rather than a public school.
Similar to the United States, homeschooling is not really a new phenomenon for the other countries around the world. It might be considered as a method of education that was prevalent before the introduction of Government schools and the rules and regulations set by the education committees to provide standards that must be followed strictly. This find of a system didn’t provide much opportunity for revolution and thus parents from around the world became more keen towards educating children at home only.
In Africa, South Africa has an estimate between 30,000 to 100,000 children in homeschooling. In North America, Canada has over 60,000 and the United States has the highest with over 2.5 million children. In Asia, India has about 0.5 to 2.71 million, the Philippines around 4000 and Israel only 500 or less. Europe is increasingly becoming more acceptable towards homeschooling and in the coming years, it has been predicted that the ratio is likely to improve.
Currently, homeschooling is legal only under restrictive conditions as a constitutional right is some of the countries such as Austria, Belgium, and the Czech Republic.
Countries like Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and a few others also have homeschooling as a legal concept as an alternative to public schooling but it is still at a primary level and will take some time before it becomes more prevalent. In Oceania or Australia and New Zealand, the statistics are of 15,000 and 6,500 kids respectively. Here too homeschooling is legal as an alternative to the mandatory public school system. The best progress, however, is visible in the U.S. itself.
Every year the number of students opting for homeschooling increases, In fact, currently many students participate in homeschooling cooperatives and efficiently utilize resources such as those of community/public college programs and private tutors which helps them in earning credit before actually attending college. It is also a misconception that homeschooled children will find it difficult to get admission in a college. Students are advised to keep their documents and certificates safely to make the process easier.
Homeschooled children are no more looked down upon anywhere around the world.