Many UK schoolchildren experience anxiety at school, which is why their parents transfer them to home schooling. However, experts are not sure that at the moment the Kingdom's educational system is ready for the popularity of homeschooling.
After the coronavirus pandemic, about 50 thousand families in the UK transferred their children to home schooling before the summer holidays. The trend of homeschooling continued in the 2022/2023 academic year, with a total of 60% of schoolchildren dropping out of school. Homeschooling continues to gain popularity.
There are several reasons why parents do not want their children to attend mainstream schools: ideological, religious, physical, and psychological. The most common problem of recent times is that students experience anxiety at school. This can be caused by psychoneurological problems, some students cannot cope with the academic load or are bullied by classmates. When it becomes difficult for a child to go to lessons, parents agree with the management of the educational institution on an individual education plan. If there is no such opportunity in schools, then moms and dads are ready to transfer the child to study at home. This creates risks not only for schoolchildren, but also for parents who, due to their busy schedule, may not devote enough time to their child's education.
Education in the UK is strictly regulated: if a student misses classes for more than five days without a valid reason, parents can be fined 160 pounds. With regular absences from lessons, the police may be interested in the family, and parents face a fine of up to 2,500 pounds.
However, the authorities and school representatives do not control the results of homeschooling students. About 40% of educational institutions do not even know the reason why schoolchildren study outside of school! It's just that head teachers, principals and teachers do not have enough time to go to each child and check the lessons.
Since 2019, the government has been discussing an initiative to introduce a single list of children studying at home and finding a solution to the problem of the outflow of students from schools. If at the state level the problem remains unresolved, then in one of the cities of England they tried to solve these problems ... by financing a hospital: there children with psychological illnesses can attend classes with the support of a tutor, they have the opportunity to participate in online broadcasts of lessons.
Not so long ago, the development of a program to support socially vulnerable students and obligations to ensure inclusion began. However, a lot of time must pass for innovations to begin to bring positive results.
