Tony Mooney: Time to face the truth about home schooling

Education Otherwise, the support group for parents who educate their children at home, estimates that 170,000 youngsters are being home-schooled. There is no reliable research to support this figure, but the number of parents taking their children out of the school system is rising sharply.

Over the past five years my own workload as a local education authority inspector for the home education of secondary school children has more than doubled, and there seems little evidence to suggest that there will be a dramatic easing in the foreseeable future.

Newspapers and magazines reporting on this recent trend in home schooling illustrate their articles with middle-class parents committed to the idea of taking responsibility for their children's education. These parents portray home education as an exciting and fulfilling adventure. But from my own limited experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

I find myself visiting families on deprived working-class estates. I try to help parents who have turned to home education as a last resort. The parents invariably tell me that their action is the result of their children being bullied, of being unable to find a suitable school, or a curriculum that is such a turn-off that their child has become a permanent truant. Many tell me that they are home-schooling to keep themselves out of the courts.

As an inspector, I am involved in a precarious balancing act. I am often seen by parents as part of a system that has let their child down. Therefore, I am treated with suspicion. I have to gain the parents' confidence because I am sometimes their only source of help. Once they have taken their child out of school, they are left to fend for themselves.

In giving help, I am always acutely aware that home-educating parents do not have to follow the patterns considered normal in most schools. The children don't have to cover the same subjects as at school, and they neither have a fixed timetable nor are they taught for a fixed number of hours. In addition, they are not required to meet the age-specific standards that would be expected in school (SAT tests, for example).

Although most parents let me visit their home, this is not compulsory. Astonishingly, it is not a requirement by law that I have to meet the children, either. All I am initially allowed to do is ask for information about how the parents are educating their child - and they have a choice about how they provide this. They can write a report about what they are doing and provide examples of their child's work. It is only when parents provide no evidence about how they are discharging their duty that I tell them I will have to contact them within 90 days to see if matters have improved. If everything is satisfactory, I don't have to be in touch with them for another year.

In many cases, the parents are not equipped to push their child along, especially in the final two years of schooling. Few parents can afford to employ home tutors, so I recommend commercially produced workbooks and computer software that enable students to teach themselves. It is only rarely that children study subjects other than English, maths and science. Maths is a particular concern, because children are receiving little or no help from qualified people. Working alone from a maths textbook can be soul-destroying for a teenager when they don't understand the concepts.

Even the best home- educators find it hard to sustain the commitment needed to keep their children's educational development moving forward after the onset of puberty. The ones who can afford it seek help from home tutors for GCSE work. For most parents, however, preparing their children for GCSEs causes great heart-searching. They have to become conversant with syllabuses, organise their children to do coursework and get it marked and then find a centre for final exams. All cost time and money. Needless to say, many of my students reach the age of 16 without qualifications.

Despite having four decades of teaching experience, I would never attempt to educate my children from home because my knowledge in certain areas is not extensive enough, and I would always be worried that I would be letting them down. At the same time, I have occasionally seen failing, timid, school-hating youngsters blossom through home tuition. They may not have obtained GCSEs at the age of 16, but they have gone on to further education colleges without any fear and knowing exactly what they want to achieve. None of us should be too negative about home- schooling, but nor should we idealise it and ignore its imperfections.

The writer is a former head teacher of a comprehensive school in south London

education@independent.co.uk