Autodidactic Home-Education
The education essay that’s been a long time coming
Education is Compulsory, School is Not!
In the UK, educating your child at home (or ‘otherwise than at school’) is a perfectly legal option — and over the past two decades that I’ve been involved with the community who do this, word has spread and it becomes more and more popular every year.
“As at census date in autumn 2023, an estimated 92,000 children were in elective home education (EHE). This includes adjustments made for non-response and is based on a figure of 87,700 reported by 95% of local authorities. This is an increase from an estimated 80,900 in the previous autumn term.” — Elective home education, Academic year 2023/24 — Explore education statistics — GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)
In fact, Elective Home Education (EHE) is not only legal, it is actually still considered to be the ‘default position’:
“Home education is the default position for all children, as a parent must register at a school if they wish to use one. It is of equal status in law to school education and a parent may elect to home educate their child at any point during the child’s compulsory education years.” — Education Otherwise — | Education is Compulsory — School is Optional
