HomeSchooling Home Education Blog

[Thursday 14th May 2015]

In December last year (2014) there was a government Inquiry into Homeschooling in NSW.

A discussion and analysis of this can be found on 'The Conversation' web site at: https://theconversation.com/evidence-of-home-schooling-success-erased-from-inquiry-report-35087

According to their discussion, the Inquiry report is "as interesting for what it omits as for what it includes."

Most importantly:

"The evidence regarding school failure and home education success was largely missing from the body of the inquiry report. Minutes of committee meetings (included in an appendix) show over 100 paragraphs were deleted from the draft report. Most of these deletions contained evidence of problems within schools and/or evidence of successful home education outcomes."

[Link to the Inquiry report - NSW Parliament]

Notice what this article is clearly saying:

• Although lots of submissions to the Inquiry talked about problems that students were having in schools - problems such as bullying and failing to meet their education needs - most of these 'faults of the system' were very specifically edited out of the final draft report.

• Although there were also many submissions to show how effective home schooling was in helping students - how well students improved in attitude and love of learning when home schooled - most of that was also left out of the final draft report.

For those who are really interested in home schooling their child, these 'ommissions' from a government enquiry are very revealing as to what is actually going on, and what is not being said.

We at HomeLearn hear from people all the time that are enquiring about home schooling, and we would have to say that two of the most commons concerns and reasons for home schooling are these:

• The children are being bullied or harrassed at school, often very seriously to the point where the child is almost traumatised, and very often reporting that the school is "doing nothing about it"

• The child is struggling with the work, and the school just does not seem to be able to provide a program that suits their particular needs.

... and now we have a government Inquiry that seems to have very specifically 'white-washed' these two key factors.

If you are one of the parents whose child is experiencing these kinds of issues, we do suggest you read the full article on 'The Conversation' web site, and then think about the alternative.

HomeLearn can provide a program that is tailored to your child's individual needs to that they can succeed and actually grow to love learning and not hate it - all in the comfort and safety of those that actually know and care .... you, the parents of the child!