Pandemic evokes interest in home schooling in Gurugram

Home-schooling networks and organisations have seen an increase in queries from parents, who either don’t see much merit in paying for online classes or plan to explore home schooling till the time the pandemic continues to prevail.

Schools in the district became one of the first casualties of Covid-19, with most of them shutting down in March under orders from the district administration.

Eager to continue the learning process for their kids, parents in the city are exploring home schooling as a possible option. (Waseem Andrabi/HT file photo. Representative image)

Eager to continue the learning process for their kids, parents in the city are exploring home schooling as a possible option. Home-schooling networks and organisations have seen an increase in queries from parents, who either don’t see much merit in paying for online classes or plan to explore home schooling till the time the pandemic continues to prevail. The current situation has invigorated the conversation around home schooling, especially with children staying at home, at least for the near future, say home schoolers.

Sheetal, a Faridabad-parent who switched to home schooling for her daughter in March, said that while she had been thinking about home schooling for the past two years, the pandemic just helped hasten her decision. When schools across the country shut down due to a lockdown put in place to check the spread of the Covid-19 virus in March, Sheetal said, her child’s school started sending assignments through WhatsApp initially and followed it up with online classes, which started with the beginning of the new session.

“I attended online classes with my 8-year-old daughter on the first day of the new session. During the class, my husband and I realised that my daughter was attending classes from 8am till 4pm. In the past as well, I have often corrected teachers and shared feedback with them, but these online classes helped us to witness first-hand the quality of learning that was taking place. We felt that the teaching was not up to the mark and focus was mostly on getting children to stay online all the time,” said Sheetal, who withdrew her daughter from the school in March itself.

She said that growing up, she was never stressed about school or education. “One has to be careful with what happens in schools these days. Incidents of negligence take place all the time and now with the pandemic, I am not at all confident about sending my daughter back to a school. I want her to study in a stress-free environment at home,” said Sheetal, who plans to continue teaching her child at home even after the pandemic.

Neha Anand, a member of the home schooling community in Gurugram, said that she had been receiving many queries from parents who wanted to explore home schooling. “Children are not going to school due to the pandemic and parents are seeing it as a good opportunity to give a shot at home schooling. People don’t easily take up home schooling in India but they are giving it a try under the current circumstances. I have been getting many queries from parents who want to at least try out home schooling now that they have time on their hands,” said Anand.

Anand is among a group of 250 parents who are a part of a small but fledging community of home-schoolers in the city who are connected via a WhatsApp group. Prior to the lockdown, the group used to have regular meetings.

Anand said that both parents with older children in senior classes and those with younger children were eagerly taking up home schooling. “I know parents who have already informed schools that they’d no longer be sending children to school at least for this year. They have shifted to home schooling completely,” said Anand.

Anand, who has been home schooling her children for the past three years, calls it one of the best decisions of her life. “It is possible that people might stay with home schooling after the pandemic or some might shift back to traditional schooling. But nevertheless, a conversation around home schooling has at least started, which is a start,” she said.

Saurav Dutta, who runs the Facebook group Homeschooling India, said that requests from people seeking to join the groups have shot up in the past few months. Dutta said that prior to the lockdown, the group used to receive 20-30 requests in a week whereas now, over a hundred requests are received in a week. While the spike in people joining the group doesn’t necessarily mean that all people were switching to home schooling, they were curious and wanted to know more about the concept, explained Dutta.

He also said that many parents were considering opting for home schooling for a few months or years which was a matter of concern. “We have received a number of queries on the group that I moderate. But many parents are yet to understand that home schooling is more than just learning at home. Some parents are confused and switching to home schooling without knowing what it entails might be dangerous in the long run,” said Dutta, a Mumbai resident. He also runs an initiative that documents all kinds of alternative education programs taking place across the country.

He said that in the near future, marks would no longer be the criteria for adjudging a person’s capabilities and the focus will increasingly be on skills and life experiences, something that home schooling focused on.