Homeschooling gains popularity amid pandemic, school closures

KUALA LUMPUR – It is a known fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in people changing the way they do things.

This includes education, with homeschooling, which seems to be a thing of the past, making a comeback during the pandemic.

Many would remember this mode of education having kicked off in the early eighties, when parents decided to teach their children at home, creating custom-made syllabuses catering to the individual needs of their children.

In fact, the success of homeschooling was evident with these students completing their tertiary education, both locally and overseas.

Hence when the pandemic reared its ugly head, it changed the educational landscape for many parents – those who had never considered homeschooling their children now had to reconsider their plan of action for the education of their children.

Parents who had to juggle work and the unprecedented opening and closing of schools – including international, vernacular, and other types of schools – decided that enough was enough and switched to homeschooling.

Many joined existing centres, familiarising themselves with the system while others chose to do it the old-fashioned way, creating their own content for their children using the internet.

Gregory Jude de Souza, an education counsellor and who worked at a private university for 13 years, said one of his many responsibilities was recruiting students from homeschooling centres to enrol in pre-university and university programmes.

“Homeschooling’s main attraction is that it caters to differently abled children, who do not fit into a normal school routine, either due to language or their special needs, maybe with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders or slow learners.

“And on the opposite side of the spectrum, they may be so gifted and cannot fit into a stereotyped learning,” said Gregory, who felt the pandemic had increased the anxiety of parents that their children could not catch up in normal school.

Gregory, who now recruits from homeschooling centres on a part-time basis, felt that the original concept of homeschooling has evolved, with many homeschool centres growing and transforming into international schools, while retaining their original ethos of catering to differently abled students.

“The government has recognised the value of these centres of learning and prefers that they are licenced and come within the purview of the Education Ministry,” he added.

Gregory said there are approximately 60 to 70 homeschooling centres in and around the Klang Valley, with Rawang being a popular choice.

He added that the other “pull factor” was that parents felt they could interact with the centre’s teachers when necessary and these centres were proving more popular than the old concept of schooling children at home.

Success story in home-schooling

Sagayah Mary, a delivery manager working in the IT industry, said that initially, she and her husband homeschooled their three children but due to their inability to participate in archery and gymnastics competitions lately, Sagayah decided to register them at Inspiros International School.

“Our main reason for registering our three children was so they could enter competitions such as the MSSD (Majlis Sukan Sekolah Daerah) and PMONS (Persatuan Matematik Olympiad Negeri Selangor) mathematics competition, so we registered with Inspiros to accommodate these competitions,” said Sagayah, who also works from home.

During the time she was homeschooling the children, Sagayah took four years off from work to look after them and prepare them for the subjects.

“I wouldn’t say there was a specific subject, but we would teach them in a comprehensive manner on all the subjects. But mostly on Maths and Science.

“We also wanted them to learn and explore the environment. To learn out of their love for the subject rather than memorising the subject matter.

“Meanwhile, English is something they learn by reading books. We have a huge collection of not less than 1,500 books. A lesson on science can touch on topics of archaeology, cultures etc,” said Mary, who feels English is indispensable in the current world and needs to be mastered.

Co-founded a home-schooling centre after son’s expulsion

Another co-founder of a homeschooling centre, C. Michael (not his real name), told The Vibes that he founded a homeschooling centre in 2011 with 15 parents and this progressed into five centres located in KL and PJ with over 200 students.

Michael’s main reason for co-founding a homeschooling centre was that his son who was suffering from attention deficit disorder was expelled from school.

“What could I do, given the circumstances, so I put my heart and soul into educating him. He finally graduated from university, maybe not with the best results but at least with an education,” said Michael, adding that some of the students have excelled to become professionals in their own fields.

“As a parent, we want our children to have an education, if the mainstream education cannot offer them that right, then parents have the right to pursue alternatives, rather than give up.” – The Vibes, April 3, 2022