School children registered for home education trebles

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

Monday, May 24, 2010

THE number of children registered for home-schooling has more than trebled to almost 700 in just five years.

The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) began assessing families whose children are taught at home in 2004, when it received applications from 92 families involving 138 children.

By the end of 2008, there were 439 children from 295 families registered as being home-educated, but a further 200 were added by the end of last year.

In the first three months of 2010, another 18 families and 22 children have been included on the register, bringing the total number of students to 661.

The board is legally obliged to ensure all children aged from six to 16 receive a minimum education, which means it must assess families who are providing home education.

Although it does not yet review the tuition being provided, plans are being made to start visiting previously assessed families in the next year.

Emer Farrell, a senior education welfare officer (EWO) with the board who oversees home education, said families choose to teach their children at home for a wide range of reasons.

"For some there are religious reasons, as the choice isn’t always available for some parents if they don’t want to send their child to a Christian school. Or it might be a lifestyle issue, for people maybe moving countries for work or doing a lot of travelling, where it doesn’t make sense to put children in school in five different places," she said.

"Others might have had a negative experience in schools around issues of bullying or they might just feel it’s the best option. Some would have health reasons, if a child has special needs or is affected by particular health issues, maybe epilepsy or different allergies, the parents might feel it’s the best thing to do."

While there is no obligation to follow the curriculum taught in the country’s 4,000 primary and second level schools, assessors must be satisfied that literacy, language and numeracy skills are being learned.

The NEWB does not require the same kind of daily teaching structure or for parents to follow the school calendar, but many families choose to prepare children for the Junior Certificate or Leaving Certificate or similar state exams for other countries.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, May 24, 2010