The introduction of home-schooling in Malta must be approached with care, for it is not appropriate for all children, or for all family circumstances. In fact, its suitability for a particular child will depend on a number of factors such as:
The children themselves – how self-motivated they are, how receptive they are to home-schooling and also their relationship with their parent(s);
The intelligence of the parents and their level of education (which does not have to mean possession of a Teacher’s Warrant);
The standard of the home itself and the suitability of the physical space available for study;
The access to the internet and to online instructional programmes;
The level of external support and supervision provided by the education authorities.
Research in home-schooling in England, by Antoinette Schembri, a University of Warwick PhD student who teaches in Malta, has revealed a workable model, used by the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, whereby a home-schooled child also attends an ‘educational hub’ for two half-days each week.
While there, they interact with other home-schooled children and the home-schooling supervisors are able monitor their progress, sociability and learning and also to assess the validity of the tuition they are being given.
I was fortunate to be present at a very informative interview, conducted in Dudley by Ms Schembri, with two home-schooled girls, aged 17 and 14: the elder, after taking ‘O’ levels, had moved from homeschooling to a conventional sixth-form college to study for ‘A’ levels.
They were polite, well-spoken and literate. Their mother was a full-time single parent living in social housing, who possessed a one-year diploma in Youth Counselling, gained after the children had started school.
The girls had none of the awkwardness so often found in children of that age when dealing with adults. When asked how home-schooled girls differed from in-schooled girls, the girls concurred that in general, the latter were far more materialistic and more interested in matters such as make-up, designer handbags, celebrities and pop music than in studying.
Homeschooling is not for all children, families or home circumstances, but with appropriate support, it can certainly have very positive results for the right child.