Indian homeschoolers, the Journey so far

This is a synopsis not only of our personal journey into homeschooling but also of the Indian homeschooling scene and our experiences over the past few years.

Personal journey

When we started homeschooling our daughter Grace in 2005, we could count on our fingertips the families who were homeschooling. We heard about homeschooling from a Christian family that came to India from California to talk about Scriptural challenges to successful Parenting, and at that time our daughter was in a Christian school, where we wanted her to have a sound foundation in the important basics of life. These ‘basics’ were what we as parents did not receive when we were growing up, resulting in one of us believing in the Theory of Evolution and the other not knowing what was the purpose of our existence.

We realized as we grew and matured, that there is indeed a God, a Creator, who loves us and cares for us as it is written in His Word. We had this desire to see that this fact is taught to our child right from the beginning.

When we heard this speaker talk from Scripture about the responsibility of parents to train up their child, it spoke to our hearts and both of us agreed that ‘Homeschooling’ it is going to be.

Indian scenario of institutional Education

In India, the majority of middle class or upwardly mobile parents wish to give the ‘best’ education for their kids, believing that this will ensure a sound future for them. Banking on this great desire, educational institutions have sprung up like weeds all over the cities, and many of them do not have any value system to speak of, while promising to teach the children admitted under their care ‘international’ standards of education. The result is mindless competition, endless anxiety for parents, with immense pressure to perform, both on the teachers and the helpless kids.

The kids who pass through Institutional school are trained to believe that their value in life, indeed their whole existence, is based on how they perform in the school exams. The ‘objective’ results will determine the child’s career, future, and status in life. Sadly, we have evidence to show that the product of this educational system seldom understands even the basic concepts of subjects in which they have supposedly excelled.

Indian homeschoolers

The community of homeschoolers in India is a varied lot. Many of them are homeschooling because they are fed up with this educational system, and wish to bring up their kids without any pressure to perform at all. There are different degrees of homeschooling, with some following a structured curriculum based on either the state or national boards, or on some international board. There are some families that do not wish to impose any structure at all on their children’s education, but rather would let the child follow his or her own curiosity. Here the parents act as facilitators for their children, believing that the children are mature enough to make choices regarding what to learn. These would be defined as unschoolers by the global definition of the term. In India the term Homeschoolers is used to include all those who are teaching their children at home, in an open environment.

The Indian Government

As of now the Government if India has not yet directly addressed the issue of Homeschoolers in black and white terms. Waking up after a gap of more that 50 years, the Indian Government declared education a fundamental right of every child in 2010. Surprisingly what came out of this delayed response as the Right to Education Act turned out to be a Right to Schooling Act, which envisaged that every child from the ages of 6 to 14 will have to compulsorily attend ‘school’! Little do the bureaucrats realize that Education has long since moved out of these so called schools!

In a letter addressed to the HSLDA in Jan 2011, the Human Resources Department did mention that as of now parents opting for homeschooling may continue to do so, and the Government is asking the National University of Education planning and Administration to look into how homeschoolers are coping with ‘real’ life.

Networking

Using Facebook, Emails, Yahoo groups, and the Mobile and telephone, we homeschoolers in India have been linking up with one another over the past many years, and now we are planning to form a National Body representing all Homeschoolers in India. We feel at this stage that it is better for us to be collectively united as part of a National Body so as to best represent our rights as parents to educate our own children in the best way we can.

It has been an exciting time as we have met with other families in and around Mumbai, and even from the country in the past few months. We have had meetings at Paushyam (a friend’s office at Bandra, suburb of Mumbai) to discuss the formalities of forming a National Body. We have also had picnics to gushing streams during the rains, organized birdwatching trails in the National park, seen the lunar eclipse from a terrace, visited the planetarium and science museum, organized a bazaar where Homeschooling kids sold their creations, had a bonfire and visited farms to learn about alternative lifestyles.

Here are some photos which will help you to get a feel of what is going on in India.

 

Homeschool kids enjoying a day out at the National Park in Borivli, Mumbai

 

Homeschoolers meeting at Paushyam, Bandra

 

Birdwatching at the National Park

 

At the Nehru Science Planetarium

At Supriya’s terrace watching the Lunar eclipse

Total lunar eclipse

 

Kids selling their own creations at the YOLA (Young Open Learners Association) Bazaar at Nikhil’s place in Mumbai

Young Open Learner’s Bazaar winners

Marshmallows over a bonfire at a Homeschoolers Meet in Mumbai

 

 

National Learning Societies ‘unconference’ at Hideout near Mumbai March 2012

It is an exciting time to be an ‘Open learner’ in India. We pray that we parents continue to have the freedom to choose the best means of education for our children now and for the future generations to come. Thank you for your interest and please spread the word around.

Dr. Mathew S P and Dr. Vinita

Grace, Mark and Nancy

Mumbai