The US Department of Education released a statement in 2008 in which it was stated that there were 1.5 million children in the USA, in 2007, who were being homeschooled. Dr Ray of NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute) estimated that by spring of 2008 this number was up to 2 million. They believe that homeschooling grows between 5% and 12% each year and that by 2009 this number can be up to 2.5 million. In this research children that are temporarily homeschooled, because of illness, were not taken into account.
It is not only in the USA that homeschooling has become extremely popular. Homeschooling is growing around the globe and is very evident in countries such as Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, and Canada, as well as, in Kenya, on the African continent. In the USA interest in homeschooling is also growing within the minority groups and an estimate of 15% of these children are homeschooled.
There are various reasons why parents choose to rather homeschool their children which will be discussed in detail later on.
In 2003 very detailed research was done to estimate the amount of learners in the USA that was being homeschooled. In this research children that were homeschooled part time were taken into account but not those that are temporarily homeschooled.
A comparison was drawn between 1999 and 2003 and the different types of homeschooling. In 1999 there were 850 000 learners in homeschooling and in 2003 the total was 1 096 000. The research included all the ages from 5 – 17 years, which represents kindergarten to grade 12. In 1999 it was found that 82% of learners were completely homeschooled. The percentage stayed the same for 2003 but the total amount of children moved up from 697 000 to 898 000. In 1999, 18% of children were enrolled in schools part time at the total amount of 153 000 children. It stayed at 18% in 2003 but the number of children moved to 198 000. Around 12.6 % of these learners are enrolled in school for less than 9 hours a week and another 5.5% for between 9 and 25 hours.
It was found that 88% of parents who do homeschooling had attended college and in 24% of the household, at least one parent was a certified teacher.
Religious or moral instruction is one of the main reasons parents choose the homeschool. The school environment and academic instruction are the other main reasons.
