'...we have come to realise that for most men (sic) the right to learn is curtailed by the obligation to attend school' – Ivan Illich.

If you are a young European adult, you have probably spent a great amount of your time in a school, and if you are a European toddler, you will most probably spend even more time in school. According to the European Commission, almost all children from the age of 4 are now involved in some form of early childhood education and care, very close to the ET 2020 target of 95 %. At the other end of the school spectrum, Eurydice reports that many European countries have extended the number of years of compulsory education since the 1980s.  

However, while educational reforms in Europe push towards earlier and longer schooling, some people make a deliberate choice to educate their children at home. In the past, this was the case for the parents of Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, Thomas Edison, and Pierre Curie, among many world famous personalities, testifying that learning at home could be as beneficial as learning at school. Today's research evidence, mostly from the US, also indicates that home educated children nowadays perform as well as school educated ones, if not better.  

Although in many countries reliable data is not consistently collected, there is evidence that the phenomenon of home education or home schooling is increasing. In the USA, it is estimated that around 1.8 million kids – 3 % of the school age population – were home schooled in 2012, compared to just over 1 million in 2003. In the United Kingdom, there has been an increase of 65 % – more than 10 000 new home-schooled children – in the last 6 years. But beyond these numbers, what do we know about home education?

Firstly, there are many different reasons why parents may make this choice. Some choose to home educate because they believe schools undermine the creativity and freedom of their children, while others consider schools to be not rigorous enough, especially on religion. Some parents are worried about bullying in schools, while others consider that schools inhibit genuine, spontaneous and profound learning, as the documentary Being and Becomingexplores. Others, such as travelling communities, may simply believe that schooling does not suit their lifestyle. Many early advocates of home education were worried about the secular tendency of public education, while later activists, such as John Holt and the even more radical Ivan Ilich, saw home schooling as the only viable solution to a more natural, independent, and fulfilling experience with learning. 

Policies and legislation on home schooling vary greatly in the Member States of the European Union. In some countries, like the United Kingdom, parents have a clear right to home-school, while in others, such as Germany, it is illegal. As testified in the European human rights court case, Konrad and others against Germany, legislation in this area reveals a tension between personal liberties and the common good. The case concerns the claim by fundamentalist Christians to a right to keep their children out of private or state schools for religious reasons. However, the European Court of Human Rights endorsed the view that parents do not have an exclusive right to educate, that it is in the children's interest to be exposed to contradictions and pluralistic views, and that the state has the overarching interest to avoid the 'emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions'. 

Those advocating against home schooling also argue that the quality and type of education becomes highly dependent on the parents' views and abilities, that family socio-economic backgrounds have a major influence, and that the burden of educating the children falls most probably on women, creating a gender inequality trap.

So what can we conclude from this?

The short answer is that we need to know much more. Debate on home schooling is quite often ideological, but very little is known about its impact. There is an astonishing lack of data on a non-negligible share of children that are home schooled. This does not help understanding how it works, and if it offers benefits or poses threats to society. 

Home schooling could potentially be a model to consider for a number of practical situations that schools are not able to address. Think for example of kids that cannot access schools or guarantee continuous attendance because of health problems, distance, or job-related mobility of parents. Moreover, looking at the potential impact of the urbanisation trend of our societies, with over 80 % of the population living in cities, there may be increasing financial pressure on the school model particularly in remote rural areas. Arguably a better understanding of home education could help in developing a good systemic alternative. 

The terrorist events we have witnessed lately in Europe have pushed the tension between individual freedom and societal responsibilities to extreme positions. In this climate, some decision-makers may feel that limiting home schooling could help create more cohesive societies. However, in an age of evidence-based policy, an alternative approach would be to find out more about the experience of home schooling, and to question our own assumptions about our education systems. 

Authors: Elena Cordero Hoyo and Peter Birch