Home schooling

Home schooling around the world


Europe

In most countries of Europe it is legal to home school your child.



Austria

It is legal in all the 9 Austrian
provinces. It is not common, on the German languaged e-mail lists I
have been on I haven't met many, although there is a homeschooling
Yahoo group now. One of the requirements in some provinces
is that children follow the state curriculum and take an exam at the end of each school year.

weblinks (in German):
http://www.erziehung.at/haeuslicher_unterricht/index.php
http://www.diefreilerner.eu
http://www.zickler.net/homeschooling.htm
http://www.leben-ohne-schule.de/europa_oesterreich.html
http://leben-ohne-schule.jimdo.com/
http://jipli.free.fr/oesterreich



Yahoo group:
http://de/groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschooling_austria/



Belgium

Completely legal, usually with a yearly visit by a government official,
which is typically mainly about whether the children are socializing
enough and happy with being home schooled, not so much about their
educational achievements, although there are officially some rules to
that extent. I haven't heard of anyone who ended up with real problems
about the educational achievements on the various Dutch languaged
e-mail groups I am on.

Weblink (in Dutch):
http://www.thuisonderwijs.be/

and one in English

http://users.skynet.be/bcha/



Bulgaria

Illegal. Some special needs children get an exemption, but they will still have to follow the state curriculum.

Compulsory education age: 6-16



Cyprus

Illegal - penalties can be given.



Czech Republic

Five-year experimental federal law (began in 1999)
allows home education only ages 5-12.

No clue what things are at now.


Denmark
Legal. At present no further data


Finland

Legal

e-mail:Anne Lappalainen



France

Legal

Les enfants d'abord (since 1988) has been working very hard in France
to make things easier on parents who are home educating. It has become
a lot easier over the years. There are people who are also unschooling
there now. This was in the past not possible, parents had to following
the school curriculum.

Weblink:
http://www.lesenfantsdabord.org/eindex.html (English)
http://www.lesenfantsdabord.org/index.php (French)



Yahoo group:

http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/IEF_eu


Jean-Claude Verduyckt



Germany

Illegal, at the moment there is an exodus going
on of people leaving the country as children have been taken away from
their parents and other problems.

Educational age: 6-16
Weblink:
http://educatinggermany.7doves.com/



Greece

At present still illegal, although foreigners get
left alone usually. They are working on getting it legal though. No
clue where they are with this right now.

Hungaria
Legal, but uncommon. There is a "duty to learn", not to go to school. The parents have the right to choose the place of learning.
The parent can choose between schools (state or private), or to have its child be registered as "magantanulo", which means "private learner".
In practise, one has to be registered at a school, as a pupil who is attending, or who is private learner. It is the decision of the director, in which way he wants to verify the pupil is learning, mostly they choose exams.
The lawtext:
http://net.jogtar.hu/jr/gen/getdoc.cgi?docid=99300079.tv
Please copy and paste the above link, otherwise it doesn't seem to work.

Although the law is liberal, homeschooling uncommon. There are school directors, who don't know about it, or at least they don't like it. The reason for this is, that for private learners, the school is not obtaining any funding. For learners at school, they get a certain amount/pupil.


Italy

Legal, but uncommon. Parents have to report to the schools, as you will
have to enroll your child in the school, but then you keep them out and
educate yourself. Foreigners who are not familiar with it, can often
stay out of that system altogether. In case you cannot stay out of it,
it is good to go around the various local school and interview the
principal to get a feel on how the principal feels about home schooling
and pick the school of which the principal suits you best :-) The
principal has to handle your home schooling paperwork.

Unschooling is very difficult, after elementary school. In year 8 there
is an intense exam. Some children, who are not ready, can wait a year.

MSN board for English speakers:

http://communities.msn.com/HomeschoolingFamiliesinItaly

Italian christian home schooling website: http://www.utilecomune.com

Italian language Yahoo group: http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/scuolafamiliare



Ireland

Legal.

Weblink to the Irish home schoolers organisation:http://www.henireland.org/

Compulsory education age: 6-16



Luxemburg

illegal



Netherlands

Legal, but uncommon and sometimes difficult.

Officially illegal as soon as one has had their child in school the school year before school starts again.

When parents have not had their children in school yet, they can go for
an exemption based on religion. This means that there should not be any
school or their religion within reach. So parents have to come up with
an uncommon religion.

Once a child has been in school it is seen that the parents have made a
choice for a particular religion or lack there of in public schools and
it is not easy to change your mind on that.

This can result in court cases. Usually parents do end up having their
children home schooled, but it can take some money, work and stress.

weblink: http://www.lereninvrijheid.nl/index2.html

weblink for the national organisation: http://www.nvvto.nl

weblink: http://www.thuisonderwijs.net

http://www.thuisonderwijs.com

Compulsory education age: 5-18



Norway

Legal and on the increase, though still small.

Weblink: http://folk.uio.no/cbeck/OTH%20in%20English1.htm

e-mail: oth@bdd.no



Poland & Baltic States

Legal, but only when permission is granted



Portugal

Legal. The school system has problems and therefore they are happy to have children educated at home.

Russia
No data at present

Slovakia
No data at present



Spain

Legal. Protected under article 27, section 1 under the Spanish
constitution, however for some families things are made difficult.

weblink to national organisation: http://educacionlibre.org/inicimarc.htm (in Spanish - started in 2002)



Sweden

It is legal and there are rules which aren't always easy to take.
Sometimes parents have to get permission. Things differ per
municipality. It is very uncommon.

My Alternative to School (MATS) is the Swedish organisation.

E-mail: katarina.jadinge@translateit.pp.se

Postal address:

MATS

Katarina Jadinge,

Pl 2199,

370 10 Brakne-Hoby

SWEDEN



Switzerland

Legal in most cantons. Things are very
different per canton. It varies from being totally illegal in Ticino,
parents needing to have a teachers degree in Basel, to parents needing
a teacher to supervise them in Bern, to totally freedom in Aargau.

An overview of which canton has what requirements is here:

http://www.cruxmove.com/SwissHomeSchooling.htm (english)

however, this could potentially be out of date.
A list with all Cantons: http://www.cruxmove.com/kantonalSummary.html (english)

Weblink to homeschool association of Switzerland: http://www.homeschool.ch/en_index.html (english)

This is a weblink to a parents lobby for freedom of educational choice: http://www.elternlobby.ch/deutsch/ (german)

Forum in French and English: http://nyonweb.ch/homeschool/index.php?lng=en
weblink: http://www.leben-ohne-schule.de/europa_schweiz.html (german)

Compulsory educational age: 6-16



United Kingdom

Legal in England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. Laws can
differ a big between the 4. In case exams will be done there are 2 ways
of going about it, one is the standard GCSE's & A-levels, the other
is going through the Asdan & Cope system.

The local education authority can be in contact with parents about
visits / reports, but when a child has not been in school before, they
are likely not to know about the family and will therefore not be in
contact, unless one gets reported in one way or the other.

National organisation weblink: http://www.education-otherwise.org

Mike Fortune-Wood:http://www.home-education.org.uk/

http://home-ed.info/

compulsory educational age: 6-16

Africa

Egypt

Ethiopia

Morrocco

Sudan

America's


Canada
Legal

Guatemala

Mexico

USA
Legal


Asia

Bangladesh

Birma

China

India

Indonesia

Japan

Malaysia

Pakistan

Phillipines

Sri Lanka

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkey



Australia & New Zealand

Australia
Legal

New Zealand
Legal

Please do contact me in case you have any additional information, additional weblinks, find that weblinks don't work, etc.
Thanks very much!
Diana