COVID-19 lockdown sparks rise in home schooling after pandemic

COVID-19 lockdowns have spurred a staggering increase in the number of Queensland parents who are home schooling their children permanently, with a 25 per cent increase this year.

Queensland parents are pulling their children out of classrooms at staggering rates, with a 25 per cent spike in homeschooling registrations this year.

As of August, 4297 Queensland children aged 5-17 were enrolled in home education, up from a state total of 3411 in 2019.

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The highest number of students being homeschooled were aged 10, with 455 registered this year.

Queensland University Technology home education expert Rebecca English said the two main reasons for the increase in home schooling were parents who observed that their child’s behaviour and learning improved during the homeschooling period of the pandemic and the greater exposure of home education of the past few years.

“More parents had exposure to what it’s like to be home with their children (during COVID-19 lockdown) and saw improvements in their ­behaviour and learning over that time,” she said.

“The second big area is that as more families do home ­education, it becomes more visible a choice for people, so with the increased exposure, the more people do it, the more it becomes a realistic ­option for people,” Dr English said.

“They’re the two main reasons why we’ve seen a huge jump this year, but over the five years, there has been a year-on-year increase each year, so I'm not surprised there’s been an increase this year.”

In 2016, 2302 students were educated at home around the state, which increased to 2580 in 2017 and 3232 in 2018.

Home Education Association president Karen Chegwidden said across Australia similar increases were being observed, with COVID-19 having played a role in the ­uptake of home education.

“Across the board, prior to COVID-19, the main reason people were coming to home schooling was because schools were not meeting their children’s needs… they were falling through the cracks, they weren’t getting the help they need,” she said.

Ms Chegwidden said that bullying and associated mental health issues was the second most common reason children were homeschooled by ­parents, followed by ideological reasons.

The Education Department did not respond to questions around whether the increase in home education applications occurred during the COVID-19 period which impacted schools.

A spokesman said the department did not collect information on the reasons why parents choose to home educate their children.