LEARNING and fun? Certainly not a combination one comes across often. However, while attending my first homeschooling class the expression of joy on each child’s face while learning new vocabulary words was, if anything, unsettling. A smaller group of children huddled around the teacher enjoying the informal process was an alien sight for someone who has been in the field of education for a while.

In Pakistan, study groups are being formed and play dates assigned to allow parents, specifically mothers, to incorporate home-based learning instead of adapting themselves to school-based instruction. For Soheba, mother of two, homeschooling is all about flexibility in learning that “allows you to move faster in the areas your child easily understands … but also spend longer on concepts they take longer to grasp. You can adjust teaching methods to how your child learns best.”

Mona agrees. For her, “learning is more fun. In addition, homeschooling helps them learn how to make more conscious choices in life rather than following the norm. School dilutes the child’s personality whereas home education strengthens individuality and creativity.”

Support from family and friends is essential for a parent deciding to homeschool and may be difficult to come by. For Mona the transition was simpler. Soheba, however, admitted to receiving a mixed response. “The point to be made is that it’s not about what is ‘right or wrong’ but it’s just another option of how to educate your child. [Though] most are concerned about how children are socialised, they are always happy to hear that we have a homeschool community which meets regularly for socialising and joint studies.”

A typical day for a homeschooled child varies with age, though mornings are utilised for maximum learning. Despite enrolling them in reading programmes, subject tuitions, sports classes and as well as weekly book clubs, the kids have “a lot of free time to play, read, socialise with other homeschoolers and explore their own interests,” says Mona. A Quran and Arabic programme has also been designed for interested mothers. Afternoons, for Soheba, involves “free time to read, cook or play, or for me to do errands with or without the kids,” while Mona uses the weekends to work on an art or science project.

One of the biggest shortcomings the homeschooling network faces in Pakistan is that there are no regulatory bodies, no institutional help provided to parents and no test that might help determine the level of the child. There are more problems to boot, according to Hena Hussain, educator with almost 40 years’ teaching experience: “Social and cognitive skills tend to remain underdeveloped in most homeschooled students. Interacting with other children their age, forging friendships with a diverse group of students as well as with teachers, sharing, developing sportsmanship, defending each other as well as competing with each other are all building blocks that form part of a school-going child’s learning process. Also, teaching today is primarily aimed towards making a child more independent.”

For most homeschooling mothers, this does not pose an issue. Their emphasis is not more on testing a child’s capability, than encouraging him to learn and enjoy the process. Mona elaborates: “My daughter struggled with reading initially but she had a wonderful reading teacher who told me not to pressure her. That was the best advice I got and now she’s reading at her grade level.”

Soheba, however, does lament the lack of beneficial material available in the market for primary-level children. Also, while speaking about how her children have adjusted to being homeschooled, she spoke of her elder son who had attended school for three years: “Initially, I was concerned he would miss his friends. He never missed them enough to ask to go back to school even though I did ask him occasionally in the first few months.”

Mona admits to her initial anxieties while embarking on this alternative lifestyle, too, but has settled well as have her children. “Our community grows in strength and the kids increasingly benefit from this loving, nurturing and creative environment, so I feel much more confident of my decision. I also used to have a lot of issues getting the kids to study. I hardly teach now, I only facilitate learning.”

However, Mrs Hussain does not dismiss homeschooling completely in favour of traditional schooling, and insists that “even if a child goes to school, homeschooling still is an essential part of his life. Without a hands-on approach by the mother, a child will not be able to successfully integrate himself into society.”

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2014