The BBC is reporting that there has been a 65% increase in children recorded as home educated in the UK over six years.
Parents gave reasons including their lifestyle, dissatisfaction or disagreements with local schools, special needs, bullying and religion.
Responses to Freedom of Information requests from 190 local authorities showed 36,609 home educated children.
The government says it will continue to “respect the rights of parents to home educate their children”.
There is no legal obligation for parents to send their children to school, although they have to provide a “suitable education” at home.
The figures show an increase of at least 10,399 pupils, up to almost 37,000, in a school population of about 9.5 million pupils.
The home-educated figure may be an under-estimate. When parents withdraw a child from school they are recorded as being home educated, but children who never start school may not be reflected in the statistics.
Among 190 councils with figures for 2014-15, there were 178 with data for the past three years, showing a 26% increase.
For 133 of the local authorities, there was data from 2009-10 to 2014-15, showing that numbers had risen by almost two thirds.
Graham Stuart, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Home Education, says it is possible councils have become better at recording information, and any figures are almost certainly an under-estimate.
“Local authorities have created groups to share best practice, and we’re seeing what I hope is an increasing trend to stop treating home education as a problem to be regulated, and instead see it as an opportunity to be facilitated and supported,” said the Conservative MP and former chairman of the education select committee…
The recording of parents’ motivations is patchy, partly because parents do not have to explain themselves, so there is no comprehensive information.
The same is true of the limited data about the families themselves.
In the very small number of local authorities where there is information on religion, about 31% of home educators belong to a faith group, although that may not be the reason they have chosen an alternative to school. Of those, half are listed as Christian and a third as Muslim…
More at: Rising numbers of pupils home educated
See also from the BBC: The right to choose to home educate
There is very little hard information on the reasons children are being home educated, but suggestions in the full article include differences in philosophy or lifestyle, dissatisfaction with local schools, cultural or religious reasons, bullying, special needs or medical reasons.
What do you make of the apparent increase in numbers and is it a cause for concern or something to be welcomed?
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SchoolsImprove Surely the same checks and safeguards applicable to schools should apply!
SchoolsImprove This should be seen as a comment on govt edu policy; public are voting with their feet. No-one has any confidence in DfE
SchoolsImprove Sign of the times.
8.7% rise per year? Are the FOIs published anywhere? http://edyourself.org/articles/lalinegraph.php
Meenakumari999 SchoolsImprove A lack of trust in schools due in its entirety to Ofsted and DfE comments in the media and interference
SchoolsImprove So many reasons behind this, but changes in schools re: the flexibility and support they offer is part of it.
SchoolsImprove
do we know if these kids come from families with similar backgrounds? i.e. religious, ethnic..
SchoolsImprove well said, there is much to learn from home education.
The percentage on home schooled children in an area is a reflection of the education provided in that area. I know one parent in the UK who is unschooling her child. Her son had to do a test for maths and English, and he excelled in both! He also knows a lot more about survival skills, cooking and food production than a lot of children. I know more parents in the USA who home school though, one for health reasons., most because the system itself didn’t work for their child(ren).
Not to say that this is the way to go for everyone. When my daughter broke her leg, I taught her what the school was doing to keep her up to date for a month (and have to say teachers are woefully underpaid), and it wasn’t easy!
SchoolsImprove Wonder why?
SchoolsImprove but it does need to be regulated.
SchoolsImprove for every child home educated for a good reason there is another where a parent has fallen out with the system 9
SchoolsImprove While some are reasonably educated, there’s a generation of young people who will never be to employment standards. Scary.