Home educated pupils in Britain increase 65 pct over six years

The number of children being home educated recorded in Britain has increased by 65 percent over the six years, latest figure showed Monday.

Responses to Freedom of Information requests from 190 local authorities showed that 36,609 children in these areas have been home educated for 2014-2015, with an increase of at least 10,399 pupils, BBC said.

Among the latest figures from the 190 councils, there were 178 with data for the past three years. For 133 of the local authorities, there was data from 2009-10 to 2014-15, revealing the numbers had risen by 65 percent.

The number of home educated children may be underestimated, BBC reported, explaining that the figures only showed the number of pupils who has been withdrawn by their parents from schools, which have been recorded. However, children who never go to school can not be estimated.

There’s no legal obligation for parents in Britain to send their children to school, thus, they don’t have to explain why they don’t send their children to school. But they have to provide a “suitable education” for their children at home, according to BBC’S report.

According to information provided by 41 councils, the reasons why parents who choose to educate children at home include a difference from philosophy or lifestyle, dissatisfaction with the local school or a conflict, cultural and religious reasons, school bullying, medical problems and growing pressure on school places due to increasing pupil numbers. Endit