Why Is Homeschooling on the Increase in Britain?

By Simon Webb

In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the UK, there were estimated to be around 60,000 children being homeschooled by their parents. Last year, it is believed that this figure doubled to roughly 115,000, and there is general agreement that the number is still increasing. For some professionals in the field of education, this is a cause for concern. But for those parents who refuse to send their children to school, it is a harbinger of things to come. After all, in the United States, more than five per cent of children are educated at home.

There is in this country a very old, and wholly false, belief that school attendance is compulsory. This is not the case—the late queen did not attend school for a single day. It suits many people to think that children must attend school, but it is not required. In fact, you are not obligated to inform anyone if you choose not to send your child to school when they reach five. British law does state that children should receive full-time education from that age, but it does not have to be at school. When my own daughter turned five, I did not send her to school—it was that simple.

Speaking in general, teachers and Local Authorities disapprove of home education, while many parents are fiercely enthusiastic about it. What then are the pros and cons of not sending your child to school? From an educational perspective, the advantages are tremendous. One-to-one tuition in a relaxed domestic environment is more efficient than trying to cater for the needs of thirty children of wildly varying abilities, following a rigid and inflexible programme prescribed by the government. Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that slower children will be left behind, while the brightest are held back. To educate one child, it is not necessary to be a qualified teacher; all curricula and syllabuses are freely accessible online. Parents don't need to worry about any gaps in their own knowledge, either. Even specialist science or maths teachers tend to refresh their memories of different topics before teaching them to a class. Additionally, one can always find videos and websites explaining more complex topics to children. 

One major objection to home education has, surprisingly, nothing to do with education: the frequently raised subject of socialisation. It is suggested that children who are not sent to school fail to learn about ordinary, everyday life, and consequently will not know how to fit into society as adults. However, when looked at rationally, this is a frankly bizarre notion. How many of us, in our adult life, must seek the permission of our line manager at work in order to empty our bladders? Do any adults in ordinary life call their boss ‘sir’? What about being marched about and doing everything in the same squad of thirty people, whose age varies from your own by no more than a year? Reader, does any of this sound even remotely like life? The only places where this way of life might be observed are prisons and armies.

But what about the valuable lessons which children who are not at school miss out on when it comes to getting along with their peers? Surely, nobody could deny that schoolchildren learn all kinds of things from each other and that interactions in the classroom and playground lay the foundations for how to get on with people when they are adults? This objection, which is often raised when the topic of home education is discussed, is breathtakingly misplaced. Imagine the mother of a 12-year-old boy saying to her friend, "Gosh, Jimmy’s language has improved because of the children with whom he spends his days at school! His vocabulary is so much broader these days and he has picked up a beautiful accent." Is it common for parents to think that their offspring have learned wonderful new habits from their classmates or started behaving in a more civilised fashion? 

The reality is that almost every parent bemoans the fact that his or her child is corrupted by the influence of other schoolchildren, often adopting swearwords and a variety of bad or offensive habits. As one home-educating mother quipped, “If I want my son to learn how to burp, fart, and swear, I’m quite capable of teaching him those things for himself!” The truth is, for most, if not all parents, that socialisation in school is anything but a positive experience. It is only when talk turns to home education that it is presented as a desirable learning opportunity for children.

Assuming then that there are no real disadvantages for the child’s development, is there not a risk that the enterprise will fail from an educational perspective; that a child will reach the age of 16 being unable to read, write, or carry out simple arithmetical calculations? Doubtless, this may be the case for some, but the same argument could be applied to schools. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, statistics showed that in Britain, 100 thousand children left school each year without having achieved basic qualifications; that is to say five GCSEs at level 4 or higher, including mathematics and English. When, after 11 or 12 years of full-time schooling, one in five pupils in Britain does not emerge with the most basic set of qualifications, something is probably amiss. Most of us would agree that the country's educationalists should focus on this awful situation, rather than fretting about what is, in absolute terms, a modest number of pupils being home-schooled.

There is no reason to suppose that the educational outcomes of the average home-educated child are any worse than those who attend school. A personal account, which is far from atypical among home educators, can make this clear. As stated previously, I did not send my own daughter to school but taught her at home, as I had done since she was a baby. She could have gone had she expressed any desire to do so, but never did. Her social life was healthy and she attended Sunday School, belonged to the Girls' Brigade, went to ballet classes, fenced, did gymnastics, joined a chess club, and engaged in various other activities. She interacted with people of all ages.

What about academic achievement? Like many home educators, she took IGCSEs—similar to the old O-Levels and not requiring coursework or practical assessment. She gained eight A*s over a relaxed period of two years. Science can be learned at home in the kitchen; no laboratory is necessary. She passed physics, chemistry, and biology with ease. After A Levels, she was offered a place at the University of Oxford, where she got a First in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Being taught at home instead of attending school did not have a negative effect on her life chances in any respect.

The real, though unspoken, opposition to and unease about homeschooling is that it produces individuals who think differently than the majority of society. This has led to speculation that it could create "parallel societies" of fanatical Islamists or dangerous revolutionaries who pose a threat to others. While this is a far-fetched notion, it is one which is seriously advanced by those who would like to see the government crackdown on the practice. There is little doubt that the thought of thousands of children growing up without being taught the correct, liberal, and left-wing view of matters ranging from religion to same-sex relationships is a disturbing one to many teachers, social workers, and local government employees. They feel instinctively that something should be done about such an unregulated state of affairs, with people teaching their children whatever they please. Fortunately, though, successive governments have left the situation as it has always been, with parental choice paramount. When all is said and done, children belong not to the state but to their parents, and it is they who should have the final say in matters such as education. This is the way it has always been in Britain and it is to be hoped that it will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

The answer to the question posed in the title of this piece as to why home education has increased in this country is simple. Before the lockdowns and school closures, there were already many dedicated parents who, for various ideological reasons, chose not to send their children to school. Once schools were closed, however, many parents found that they enjoyed having their children with them and that they could manage their education just as well as a school could. And so, the tens of thousands of parents who made this discovery simply continued to teach their own children. It is hoped by some that this is the beginning of a revolution in home education in this country, eventually making it as popular in Britain as it is in the United States.