Legal loophole opens up chance for homeschooling

Should parents be allowed to educate their children at home?

A legal loophole has opened the way for an increasing number of mainland parents who are disillusioned with the education system, amid more and more reports of child abuse in schools, to follow a controversial overseas practice.

Subject to regulations, homeschooling is legal not only in many Western countries including Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, but also in Asian nations such as India and Indonesia as an alternative to the conventional school system.

Chinese law does not allow for homeschooling. The Compulsory Education Law, promulgated in 1986, mandates nine years of education for all children at registered schools, whether public or private.

Homeschooling beyond kindergarten is, in theory, illegal. But official oversight has allowed more parents to teach their children at home or send them to home schools run by like-minded parents or private tutors.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, a Beijing-based research institute found in a recent survey that, of the 18,000 parents who had expressed interest in homeschooling, about 2,000 had already begun the practice. The majority cited dissatisfaction with the rigid pedagogy of traditional schools as the main reason, followed by a slow pace of lessons, lack of respect for children, their aversion to school life, and religious factors.

Homeschooling might also be fuelled by a lack of legal protection of minors. In addition to a string of recent revelations of sexual abuse in schools, a culture of corporal punishment among teachers has prompted more parents to consider alternative schooling. In 2012, several high-profile cases of "eye-pulling" and other incidents in kindergartens across Hubei , Zhejiang and Shanxi provinces triggered a public outcry and heightened calls for tougher laws.