HOME SCHOOLING

For some children it will be the first bell this year and for others the last. There are other, so to speak, alternatives to this. In theory, not all schoolchildren can go to school on 15 September with a bunch of flowers for the teacher and a beautiful satchel. It cannot be ruled out that today there are some small children for whom the first bell will not ring. Formally, they will also be regarded as schoolchildren, but they will not attend school. They will study without leaving the house. Home schooling may be a case of necessity (for medical reasons) as well as in keeping with the wishes of the parents who are not satisfied with the education offered at school. Depending on what has been the reason for this decision to go over to home schooling, the education process itself will differ. Let us look at all the possible variants.

First variant: education by the family 

There are quite a few worried parents who are not happy with the standard of education at school. The alternative is naturally to send your children to private school. But it has to be recognised that private schools are beyond the means of even families with a stable average income. So, they are constantly seeking alternative ways of getting a good education for their offspring, of finding a functioning education system which does not cost them anything. Few people here know that in neighbouring Russia home schooling is gaining popularity and exists alongside traditional, so called formal,schooling; numerous factors are contributing to this: removing excessive stress and pressure from the child (pedagogues are also people and the growing workload ensuing from the demands of the curriculum are not reducing this in any way); ensuring that the burden on the child's body, which is not completely strong yet is an optimal one; the choice of curriculum; and the main thing is the extremely individual approach, which fidgety young pupils often lack in a classeswith 40 children.

Naturally, this method is not a panacea and also has its shortcomings. Firstly, the child is deprived of direct contacts with other children, of which there are plenty at school. Moreover, having people around means training in socialskills is not limited to people of their own age, but also to teachers, older and younger schoolchildren and the staff who are looking after them. The children around them in the school milieu are a mini-model of society.

The concept of home schooling is far from a new one. We all know of examples in history and literature when tutors and governesses came to the children, teaching them a bit of each of the necessary subjects and also making up for the shortcomings in their education which were bound to occur in the case of children whose parents had to spend a great deal of time on their social life. But, on the whole, taking into account that the opportunity to obtain a complete education was rarely accessible to the broad strata of the population, a scrupulous approach to the all-round development of the child was a privilege of the upper strata of society. This type of education in various forms was popular in other countries abroad in close proximity.In Russia, just as in other countries there is nothing to stop you from receiving an education at home, if this is what the parents want. And this does not affect the health of the child in any way.

The expert Rufat Aliyev believes that home schooling is a perfectly permissible way of educating children, if the parents have decided upon it. But in making this choice, the latter should understand the full extent of the responsibility that they are taking upon themselves. If there is a stratum of developed, motivated parents in our society, then that is probably a good thing, since a system like that might act as a "spur" to the traditional education, the expert says.Naturally, there are no grounds for regarding the above-said as a direct call to take your children out of school with the intention of teaching them the whole curriculum at home. Firstly, it is rare to find parents who are able to give so much spare time to teaching their children; secondly, one cannot help asking if they are competent to do that.

Once again, since the parents' main aim is that of providing their children with a maximally high standard of education, many of them hire a tutor. Rufat muallim says there are possible variants here. You can get one of the teachers in the school to give your child lessons or hire someone recommended from among your acquaintances. So, a wealth of opportunities open up before the parents, not simply to get a tutor, but a real specialist, a dedicated teacher, even if he is not qualified.

The expert sees one of the family education variants as a type of "community" approach, when several families join together to work more efficiently, exchange experience and also to provide the children with the necessary social environment.

In the opinion of psychologist Humay Axundzada, it is firstly important how the education is provided. There are pluses and minuses to both methods. If the teaching is done at home, then it should be done according to the same system used in school. Special attention needs to be paid to the variant where the parents themselves are involved in teaching their children. The standards needed here are  high, not only with regard to the knowledge of the parents, but also with regard to their teaching skills and willpower (it is clear that when you are in a relaxed home environment, it is difficult to get down to work, not to mention getting children to sit down at a desk). As far as school education is concerned, the psychologist says, in the actual situation obtaining today, if at least 70 per cent of the teaching rules are being observed, it can beregarded as effective. Foreign experts, for example, the well-known specialist in education Jerry Mintz, believe that when the parents act as the teacher (not the teacher's assistant, but the teacher) the children learn a lot better.

In keeping with the law "On education" in Azerbaijan, home schooling, the organisation of home schooling within the curriculum of general education programmes,is also one of the permissible concepts. And like the steps in formal education, home schooling and private education are also regarded as formal forms, but should take place extra-murally.

The second variant: home schooling 

The process of educating children with health problems needs to be mentioned separately. For these children home schooling is the only chance of them getting their school-leaving certificate. When it comes to home schooling, the attention of the ministry (at least with regard to the legislation) is focussed on the conclusions of a psychological, medical and pedagogical commission, which decides whether the child is being deprived of the opportunity to get an education at school  owing to a medical condition. According to the ministry's 2013 statistics. 217 children have received home schooling. In compliance with "The rules on organising education institutions providing integrated instruction" confirmed by the Council of Ministers' decision of March 2002, the management of the educational institutions should provide all kinds of assistance to individuals with impairments, and what is most important ensure that they receive home schooling by teachers with the appropriate qualifications.

There are two variants of home schooling offered to children who are disabled: they can follow an auxiliary programme or the general one. The children who learn from the general programme, study the same subjects, do the same tests and take the same examinations as their fellow coevals who are learning at school. But the time-table of lessons for home schooling is not as strict as that at school. Lessons can be shorter (20-25 minutes) than the longer ones (which can last as long as 1.5-2 hours). Everything depends on the child's state of health. Naturally, it is more convenient for the teachers to teach several lessons at a time; in most cases the child only has three subjects per day.

The third variant: distance learning

Distance learning is widespread throughout the world for children who cannot go to a general education institution for one reason or another. Distance learning means that the child receives an education without going to school (lycee, grammar school, institution of higher education), by means of educational information technology and telecommunications systems such as TV and Internet.

Purposeful and controllable intensive independent learning forms the basis of the educational process with distance learning; this means the student can learn somewhere which is comfortable for him, in keeping with an individual time-table. The student needs to have a set of special equipment and have agreed contacts with the teacher or lecturer by telephone, email or ordinary post, as well as being extra-mural. In our country the distance form of obtaining a secondary education has only been installed in a few schools as an experiment.

What parents need to know

Humay xanim says that an inclusive method of teaching involving social integration (with the exception of seriously sick children) is common practice in other countries. The learning process itself and the adaptation of the children is more effective than in home schooling. 

Yet another important element that parents who have decided to educate their child at home should remember is that the child has few opportunities to interact with other children. If a child is to be fully socialised, he or she should not be "locked in" at home. You should definitely sign him up for various activities, courses that interest him, take him for walks more frequently, create the opportunities for him to have worthwhile contacts with other children of his age. When properly organised, all these elements ensure the harmonious development of your offspring.

Naturally, masses of things are needed for this to happen, ranging from the elementary infrastructure of the process (the proper organisation of the process, the technical and administrative details) to the selection of staff. In setting out on this difficult path, parents should be prepared for mistakes and errors to occur, which are inevitable when something new is started.

It is expedient for the Ministry of Education to work out the relevant programme, which would include in it complete involvement on the part of the schools and teachers and training the parents. Home schooling is in no way competing with traditional schooling. It is just an "auxiliary" branch of it, a supplementary alternative.

THE MERITS OF HOME SCHOOLING:

The possibility of extending the period of study or, on the contrary, of condensing several years' study into a single year...

The child learns to depend solely on himself and his own knowledge.

The opportunity to study interesting subjects more in-depth.

For some time the child is kept away from harmful influences (although many psychologists regard this as a shortcoming).

Parents can make corrections to shortcomings in the school curriculum.

THE SHORTCOMINGS OF HOME SCHOOLING:

The absence of the collective. The child does not know how to work in a team.

There is no experience of speaking in public and insisting on one's opinion in front of coevals.

The child has no encouragement to do homework every day, although many psychologists believe that parents should reject the customary teaching method of giving homework once and for all. "You need to make sure that home schooling strengthens your relations, but does not make them official. Closeness to the child is the main guarantee of success," Jerry Mintz says.