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Memorandum submitted by Department for Children, Schools and Families
Annex F - International Comparisons
Summary
Background
Available Evidence
3. This paper is a short evidence review, based mainly on published research sources, but also including information provided by relevant organisations' websites (e.g. Home Education Network Ireland; Home Education Association Inc. [Australia]) and also via communication with officials in other Government Departments and other countries. This paper does not aim to provide a comprehensive review of the body of research on home literature, which is extensive. It considers a small sample of available evidence to provide information on the status of home education in a variety of countries.
4. It is relevant to note that home education is quite a contentious issue internationally. Although published as academic articles or books, some of the available information is written by researchers who implicitly support the home education movement. For example, while Brian Ray's survey reports that on average home educated children are in the 87th percentile, or top 13 per cent of children in the USA, based on the results of standardised academic achievement tests, his work is sponsored by the Home School Legal Defense Association and families were contacted through home school organisations, thus potentially creating a sampling bias.[1] It is therefore necessary to be aware that many of the academic papers, while relevant and informative, may also be ideologically inspired.
5. It is also important to note that the research on home education focuses on issues such as the academic and socio-emotional impacts of home schooling on children. The published evidence does not include information on the benefit status of home educator parents and whether home educators are exempt from conditions attached to benefit receipt in different countries. I have provided this information, where available, based on information provided on the Government websites of the respective countries.
Defining Home Education
6. Before examining the international evidence on home education, it is first necessary to offer a definition of 'home education' and provide some general background on the issue.
7. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) uses the term 'elective home education' 'to describe parents' decisions to provide education for their children at home instead of sending them to school. This is different to home tuition provided by a local authority or education provided by a local authority other than at a school.'[2]
8. A more general definition is provided by Petrie:
Home education is the education of children in and around the house by their parents or those appointed by the parents. It can be seen as a temporary or permanent alternative to the education which is provided by the state or by private schooling.[3]
9. Further consideration of the definition of home education is relevant when considering its legal status and the statutory obligations of the authorities with regards to home educated children. This issue is considered below in relation to the status of home education in different countries.
Evidence
Regulation and Population
10. There is no
legal requirement for children to attend school in
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable: (a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and (b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.[5]
11. There is little regulation of home educators in
12. In
The statistical evidence on the incidence of home education is inconsistent and there is no official recognised source. Numbers quoted in the literature vary widely and suggest the figure lies between 45,250 and 150,000.[6]
13. The lack of any legal obligations
for parents to register their intentions to home educate their children means
that there may be home educated children who are unknown to local authorities.
It was for this reason that the authors concluded that it would not be possible
to ascertain reliably the number of home educated children in
14. Although it is not currently possible to provide
a reliable figure for the number of home-educated children in
Motives for Home Education
15. A 2007 feasibility study examining the prevalence of home education in England[11] based on a sample of 18 home educating parents, 9 local authorities and 6 home education organisations, noted the most common reasons for home education in England as being:
1. Dissatisfaction with school discipline and safety (including issues such as bullying, school phobia and dissatisfaction with the standards of behaviour in the school). 2. Dissatisfaction with the quality of education and/or the curriculum. 3. Religious or ideological beliefs. These included home education by Gypsy, Roma and traveller parents due to concerns over discrimination and erosion of their culture. Religious backgrounds (Muslim and Christian) were cited by several parents as a major reason for home educating. Several parents expressed an ideological opposition to the school system. 4. Children with Special Educational Needs (including dyslexic, autistic and gifted and talented children) - some parents felt that their children's needs were not being adequately met in school. 5. Choice of secondary school - some parents decided to home educate their children because they felt that the allocated school was unsuitable. 6. Health reasons - in one case, a child was home educated due to having missed substantial periods of schooling due to chronic illness. 7. Local authorities also cited risk of exclusion or prosecution as reasons why some parents opted to home educate.
16. This range of
reasons indicates that the population of home educators within
Figure 1: Parents' descriptions of what had motivated them to home educate (n=412). Participants could give more than one answer.[14]
Rothermel notes that, 'Overall, the motivations could be divided very approximately into two groups, those concerned with school and those concerned with family ideology.'[15]
Benefit Status
17. Home educators are not currently subject to any special status or exemptions from conditions placed on welfare-to-work benefit receipt. Home educator lone parents are on Income Support (IS) due to their lone parent status rather than because they educate their children at home. In this regard, home educating lone parents on Income Support will lose their IS eligibility in line with the increased conditionality linked to the age of youngest child, which is to be phased in from November 2008. Lone Parents who move onto Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) will then be subject to the full JSA regime, including a requirement to actively seek work. During the consultation on the In Work / Better off: next steps to full employment Green Paper (July 2007) (insert ref), feedback received from external stakeholders indicated that: 'It was strongly felt that increased conditionality was not appropriate for... parents who choose to home educate.'[16]
Regulation
18. Home education
is legal throughout
19. In
ˇ Whether the teaching / learning programme meets the minimum curriculum requirements; ˇ Whether the programme is suitable for the child; ˇ That the time allocated is sufficient and comparable to the time spent in school; ˇ That the learning environment is suitable; ˇ Whether the learning resources are adequate to support the child's needs; ˇ That an adequate system of recording the child's progress is in place.[17]
When the period of registration (between 6 months and 2 years) expires, the parents must renew their application for registration, which can be done either through a visit or through submitting documentation.
20. Home educators are eligible for some subsidies such as the Educational Textbook Subsidy Scheme and the Back to School Allowance.[18] 21. A similar process for
registration is in place in the Benefit Status
23. Lone parents
in
ˇ You
must have a qualifying child aged under six if you are partnered, aged under
eight if you are single, or aged under 16 if you have been in receipt of
Parenting Payment prior to ˇ PP can be paid to only one member of a couple. ˇ When youngest qualifying child is aged six or over, must enter into Activity Agreement allowing participation in a broad range of activities. ˇ Customers who were granted Parenting Payment before 1 July 2006 will (subject to continuing eligibility) remain on this payment until their youngest child turns 16 and will have participation requirements when their youngest child turns seven.[20]
24. Being a home educator automatically exempts a welfare recipient from the participation requirements related to receiving this benefit. The guide to the legislation notes that 'there are a number of circumstances where an automatic exemption from participation requirements due to special family circumstances can be applied for PP recipients: [including]...if the PP recipient is providing home schooling to one or more of the children for whom they are the principal carer.'[21]
Regulation
25. In his article
on 'Home Education in Northern Europe', Beck notes that, 'Sweden has
Scandinavia's strictest official regulation of home education', [22]
with the number of home educated children remaining at around 100 since
statistics were first collected in the 1990s (95 registered in 2007/2008).[23]
A summary of the legal status of home education in
26. For exceptional reasons, parents can be allowed by the local education school board to educate their children at home for one year at a time. The school board has to assess that the education will be equivalent to compulsory school education and is also responsible for monitoring the home education and the results.[24] The Swedish Education Act states:
S. 4 A child subject to compulsory schooling may be permitted to complete this otherwise than as provided in this Act, if it appears to be an adequate alternative to the education otherwise offered the child in the provisions of the Act. The requirement of insight into activities must be fulfilled. Permission may be issued for up to one year at a time. During the validity period, the result of the activities shall be assessed. The permit may be revoked with immediate effect if necessary insight into the activities is not provided or if it for other reasons may be assumed that the conditions for approval are no longer present.
S. 5 Matters referred to in s. 4 shall be considered by the local education board for the school where the child would otherwise have undertaken its compulsory schooling.[25]
27. In principle, there should be no difference
between municipalities stance on home education, however, they may differ in
practice. Kenny Peterssen, an official in Statistics Sweden noted that there
are two main categories of children who are home educated in
28. It is the Municipal Education Committee (MEC), composed of lay politicians, which makes the decision whether an application for home education status is approved or not. There are no set criteria defining the content of applications or for the standards by which municipal committees consider the application.[27]
Financial Support
29. Parents who have been allowed to educate their child at home have no right to receive financial support, for example, subsidies for lunches when the child does not make use of the free school lunches, or financial support comparable to a "school voucher" when the child does not attend and make use of the teaching and other resources at school.
Regulation
31. Article 42 of the Irish Constitution sets out the relationships between the family, parents, children and the State with respect to education. It says: 1. "The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children".
2. "Parents shall be free to provide this education in their homes or in private schools or in schools recognised or established by the State".
3.1 "The State shall not oblige parents in violation of their conscience and lawful preference to send their children to schools established by the State, or in any particular type of school designated by the State".
3.2 "The State shall, however, as guardian of the common good, require in view of actual conditions that the children receive a certain minimum education, moral, intellectual and social".
4. "The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation".[29]
Benefit Status
33. Lone parents
in
34. Active
benefits in 35. The circumstances listed on the guidance for Jobseeker's Allowance (dated 21st April 2008) in which a person may be deemed to be, or is exempted from the requirement to be, available for work, does not include any reference to home educators.[32] While this may suggest that there are no special exemptions relating to home educators on Jobseeker's Allowance, I have not been able to confirm this directly with Irish officials. Evidence on the relative performance of home educated children
36. Block[33]
provides a review of recent studies comparing the educational outcomes of
home-educated and schooled children, based on seven studies conducted in the
37. It is, however, necessary to consider these results with caution. Block notes that the better achievement of home-educated children in these surveys is likely to be attributable to the characteristics of home educating parents, who are better educated, have higher incomes and are strongly committed to their child's development. It is unclear, therefore, whether the children's better performance can be attributed to their advantaged background, to being educated at home, or both. Caution must be taken when generalising from these studies as many of the surveys used small samples from specific populations; Block also suggests that more sophisticated comparison methods such as matching would be better than the general group comparisons used in the research cited.[34]
38. Block also reviews papers which compared the social and emotional development of home educated children to those of school pupils. The studies considered found either no differences between the two groups or that home educated children had better-developed social skills or sense of self.[35]
39. In her UK-based study of 35 four-year old home-educated children from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, Rothermel reported that 75 per cent of home-educated children scored over 75 per cent on the Performance Indicators of Primary Schools (PIPS) baseline assignment compared with 5.1 per cent of children nationally.[36] It is important to emphasise that these findings were based on a very small sample, so it is not appropriate to make generalisations on the basis of this research alone. Rothermel's research does, however, report a similar general trend to the studies examined by Block.
40. It is worth noting also, that recent Government research raises some concerns regarding the monitoring and quality of education received by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. Ivatts notes that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are among the most excluded in British society, which results in increasing numbers of children from these communities being removed from mainstream provision. Concerns are raised, however, because:
Many parents have very low level literacy skills, have limited and negative experiences of attending school themselves and are among the least qualified to be able to make a sound and informed judgment on the quality of the education that they are managing to provide or organise for their children. There is little doubt that few Gypsy/Roma and Traveller parents are providing their children with a suitable education. As either consumers or providers parents are thus seriously disadvantaged.[37]
It is necessary, therefore, to be aware that it may be difficult to generalise about the performance of home-educated children given the diversity of the population of home educating families both within the UK (see the section above on 'motives for home education') and internationally.[38]
Conclusions
a) Is home education regulated or formalised in any way? The evidence
reviewed suggests that in comparison to other similar countries,
b) Are home educators exempt (or not) from JSA-style conditionality?
While other
countries have stricter registration and monitoring requirements relating to
home educators, the examples considered above suggest that there is not
necessarily a relationship between increased regulation and any exemptions from
activities related to welfare benefit receipt. Of the four case studies
considered, only
c) Is there evidence on the success or failure of home education?
While existing
surveys indicate that home educated children may outperform their counterparts
in school, many of the studies rely on small samples or are drawn from specific
populations (US-based surveys often draw samples from a largely Christian
population, e.g. Ray 1997).
Annex A
Table 1: The Legality of Home Education in Different Countries
The information included in this table is derived from published research and relevant websites, including those of home education organisations. While efforts have been made to include up-to-date information, it is important to note that given that some of the material cited was published several years ago, legal changes in different countries may have occurred since the date of publication. It is for this reason that I include publication dates and dates of access in the references. The level of detail of the information sourced on different countries varies according to the sources available.
Table 2: The relation between the right to home education and the control of home education in different countries.
Liberal
The right to Home education (vertical axis)
Restrictive
Weak strong Control of Home education (horizontal axis) Note:
This
table is a slightly adapted version of the table included in Beck (2002).[12] I
thought it would be useful to include as it shows the relationship in different
countries between the legality of home education and its degree of regulation
in different European countries. It is, however, important to note the date of
the source. The legal status of home education may have changed in some
countries since the publication of this paper.
Annex B: Overview of Studies Comparing Home-Educated and Schooled Children's Academic Performance[39]
Annex C: Bibliography
References
N.B. References for Table 1 in Annex A are provided separately in the endnotes at the end of this document.
Andrén, Birgitta
(Director of Education, Analysis and Coordination Unit, Swedish National Agency
for Education) (
Beck, Christian W.
(2002) Home Education in Northern Europe,
paper to the CESE-Conference,
Blok, Henk (2004)
'Perfomance in Home Schooling: An argument against compulsory schooling in the
Department for
Children, Schools and Families (2007) Elective
Home Education: guidelines for local authorities, available on-line at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities/_documents/content/7373-DCSF-Elective%20Home%20Education.pdf,
accessed on
Department for Work and Pensions (December 2007) Ready for Work: full employment in our generation, DWP command paper.
HOPWOOD, Vicky,
O'NEILL, Louise, CASTRO, Gabriella and Beth HODGSON (2007) The Prevalence of Home Education in
Ivatts, A. (2006) Elective Home Education: the situation regarding current policy, provision and practice in Elective Home Education for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children, DfES Research Report RW77, available online at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RW77.pdf, accessed on 26/6/08.
Office of the Board
of Studies,
Peterssen,
Ray, Brian D. (1997) Strengths of their Own: home schoolers
across America, National Home Education Research Institute Publications:
Rothermel, Paula (2003) 'Can We Classify Motives for Home Education?' in Evaluation and Research in Education, Vol. 17: Nos. 2&3: 74-89. .
Rothermel, P.J.
(2004) Home-Education: Comparison of Home
and School Educated Children on PIPS Baseline Assessments, available
on-line at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.rothermel/Research/ESRC/PipsBaseline.htm,
accessed on
Villalba, Cynthia M.
(2003) 'Creating Policy from Discursive Exchanges on Compulsory Education and
Schooling in
Websites
Department for
Children, Schools and Families (2008) Every Child Matters: change for children
website, 'About ContactPoint', available on-line at: http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/contactpoint/about/,
accessed on
Australian Government
(January 2008) 'Participation Requirements Exemption in Special Family
Circumstances - Automatic (PP)', available on-line at: http://www.facsia.gov.au/guides_acts/ssg/ssguide-3/ssguide-3.5/ssguide-3.5.1/ssguide-3.5.1.270.html,
accessed on
Centrelink (2008) 'Parenting Payment Rates: 20th March to 30th June 2008', available on-line at: http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/filestores/co032_0803/$file/co032_0803en.rtf,
accessed on
Home Education Association Inc. (2008) 'Legal Requirements and Registration in the ACT', available on-line at: http://www.hea.asn.au/resources/disp_res.asp?type=4&id=141,accessed
on
Swedish Government (1985)
Swedish Education Act, available on-line at: http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/1/c6/02/15/38/1532b277.pdf,
accessed on
Department of Social
and Family Affairs (
Department of Social
and Family Affairs (
Home Education
Network
Wider Bibliography (not referenced)
Barratt-Peacock, John (2003) 'Australian Home Education: A Model' in Evaluation and Research in Education, Vol. 17: Nos. 2&3: 101-111.
Ray, Brian D. (2000) 'Home Schooling for Individuals' Gain and Society's Common Good' in Peabody Journal of Education, 75 (1&2): 272-293.
Rothermel, P. and A.
Fiddy (2001) 'The law on home-education' in ChildRIGHT,
November 2001.
[1] Ray 1997: 79, x, 18. [2] DCSF 2007: 3. [3] Petrie 1993, cited in Taylor and Petrie 2000: 49. [4] I refer throughout the
document to [5] Rothermel 2003: 74. [6] Hopwood et al. 2007: 2. [7] Hopwood et al. 2007: iv, 11. [8] Hopwood et al. 2007: 21-22. [9] DCSF 2008 http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/contactpoint/about/. [10] DCSF 2007: 7. [11] Hopwood et al. 2007. [12] Rothermel 2003: 87. [13] Ray 1997: 31. [14] Figure 1 is taken from Rothermel 2003: 81. [15] Rothermel 2003: 81. [16] DWP 2007: 117. [17] Office of the Board of Studies 2006: 10. [18] Office of the Board of
Studies 2006: 14. The 'Back to School Allowance' is $50 provided by the [19] http://www.hea.asn.au/resources/disp_res.asp?type=4&id=141,
accessed on [20] http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/filestores/co032_0803/$file/co032_0803en.rtf,
accessed on [21] http://www.facsia.gov.au/guides_acts/ssg/ssguide-3/ssguide-3.5/ssguide-3.5.1/ssguide-3.5.1.270.html,
accessed on [22] Beck 2002. [23] Information provided by Birgitta Andrén, Director of Education, Analysis and Coordination Unit, Swedish National Agency for Education (email to Kris Chapman, sent on 25/6/08). [24] Information provided by Birgitta Andrén, Director of Education, Analysis and Coordination Unit, Swedish National Agency for Education (email to Kris Chapman, sent on 25/6/08). [25] Swedish Education Act, available on-line at: http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/1/c6/02/15/38/1532b277.pdf, page 31. [26] Information from Kenny
Peterssen (email sent to Kris Chapman on [27] Vilallba 2003: 194. [28] Information provided by Birgitta Andrén, Director of Education, Analysis and Coordination Unit, Swedish National Agency for Education (email to Kris Chapman, sent on 25/6/08). [29] Home Education Network [30] http://www.welfare.ie/foi/onepfp.html#qualcons,
accessed on [31] A
similar distinction between contribution-based JSA (JSA (C)) and income-based
JSA (JSA (IB)) in the [32] Night workers, people on
rehabilitation training and those on approved training courses are deemed to
meet the availability criteria under specific circumstances. See 'Special
provisions regarding availability' on 'Freedom of Information: Jobseeker's
Allowance', available on-line at: http://www.welfare.ie/foi/ja_jobseekall.html#condsumm,
accessed on [33] Block 2004. [34] Block 2004: 48-49. [35] Block 2004: 47-48. [36] Rothermel 2004; see also Hopwood et al. 2007: 27. [37] Ivatts 2006: 21. [38] For example, it
is worth noting that the population of home educators in the [39] This table is taken directly from Block 2004: 44-45. [1] Home Education Network Inc. (16/6/08) 'Frequently Asked Questions' in the Home Education Network Inc. webpage, available on-line at: http://www.hea.asn.au/faqs.asp#16, accessed on 16/6/08. [2] Office of
the Board of Studies ( [3] Petrie (1995) cited in Taylor L. A. and A.J. Petrie (2000) 'Home Education Regulations in Europe and Recent U.K. Research' in Peabody Journal of Education, 7 (1&2): 50. [4]
Beck, C.W. (2002) Home Education in
Northern Europe, paper to the CESE conference, [5] Department for Children, Schools and Families (2007) Elective Home Education: Guidelines for Local Authorities, available on-line at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities/_documents/content/7373-DCSF-Elective%20Home%20Education.pdf, pp. 4-5. [6] [7]
Speigler, T. (2003) 'Home Education in [8]
Home Education Network [9]
Villalba, C.M. (2003) 'Creating Policy from Discursive Exchanges on Compulsory
Education and Schooling in [10] Jonathan L. and Mary Grace L. v. Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles (28/2/08), available on-line at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B192878.PDF, accessed 16/6/08. [11]
Homeschool Legal Defense Association ( [12] Beck, C.W. (2002) Home Education in Northern Europe, paper
to the CESE conference,
September 2009 |