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Homeschool – ing in India

Homeschool

When we look at the world after the COVID, we will realise that a lot of what we believe is essential seems like not so significant any more. One such aspect is physical schools, the way the school went about online education / online classes – parents for the first time became an integral part of the transaction between their ward and their teachers. Also parents vigorously started looking for resources available online to help their kids with self learning and also supervised learning. I just stated the obvious, but beyond this all of us kind of wondered on many complications physical schools come with and can there be an alternative to it. HOME SCHOOLING could be a real alternative for such cases. Sahal Kaushik the boy who was home schooled and cracked IIT – JEE (rank 33) at the age of 14 years really made Home Schooling the talking point in the country . The reason for parents choosing Homeschooling could be – Child is a different kind of learner, disillusioned with formal schooling system, access to quality facilities etc. So let us try to understand the way one could Homeschool their child in India

First and foremost, you are not alone. There is स्वशिक्षण – Indian Association of Homeschoolers is a non-profit initiative of homeschooling children, parents, guardians and friends. The members of this association include homeschoolers residing in India, irrespective of nationality & homeschoolers of Indian origin, irrespective of location. You can know about them though their website.

Let us now try to find answers to the questions;

  1. Can I start Home schooling from Early years?
  2. Can a Home school-ed student enter a regular school with the board like (CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, State Board) in between, say admission into Class VI, Class IX or Class XI?
  3. Can a home school student join a regular college or sit for any entrance exam of his choice?

The answer to all the above is ‘YES’

In order to help students with the schooling, one can go to the website of NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) . NIOS is one of the National Board of School Education, it is by the Government of India and they claim to be the largest open school in the world in terms of enrolment. [I am copying and pasting some highlights from their website here]

Courses Offered

  • Open Basic Education (OBE) (A level, B level, C level equivalent to Class III, V, VIII respectively of formal Education) courses are offered through Accredited Agencies (AAs).
  • Secondary – leading to Secondary School Certificate.
  • Sr. Secondary – leading to Senior Secondary School Certificate.

The Online Basic Education (OBE) Programme is offered at three levels:
OBE level A : equivalent to class I-III
OBE level B : equivalent to class IV-V
OBE level C : equivalent to class VI-VIII

  • There is a Freedom to choose subjects; continuous assessment through Tutor Marked Assignments (TMA).
  • Facility of On Line Registration for Admission and Examination Credit accumulation facility;
  • 9 chances in 5 Years to complete a course;
  • Provision of Re-admission after 5 years.
  • Learning support through Personal Contact Programme (PCP);
  • Transfer of credits (up to 2 subject) from some other Boards.

The NIOS is complete online in terms of registration and admission, the exams happen twice a year and one gets 5 chances to clear the same. The course material is delivered to your address. What one must remember is more than the student it is a task for the parent, a parent who has decided to homeschool hi/her kid has to completely dedicate his/her time to do justice to his child. The regional centres of NIOS are located at Allahabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Patna, Pune, Dehradun, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar, Raipur, Chennai, Ranchi, Dhramshala, Vishakapatnam, Sikkim (Gangtok), Amethi (Sub Regional Centre as Darbhanga,Kota). If you wish to know more, you can walk in to these centres for more details. For Sr Secondary classes, these centres will depute centres to act as the venue for Practical exams as well.

This is the list of blogs which one could follow;

http://homeschoolers.in/homeschoolers_online/

Abhiney Singh
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