Homeschooling not thoroughly monitored

KOMPAS – The government was urged to do routine monitoring towards homeschooling, which were believed to be an alternative option of education, in order to ensure that students got their rights not only to study, but also to play, get protection, be able to express themselves. The government should enforce the obligation to register school age children in the Basic Education Database. 

This responded to a research released by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta on Thursday (28/11/2019).

The research titled “Radicalism and Homeschooling: Measuring Resilience and Vulnerability” was conducted to homeschooling actors and participants in Jakarta, Depok (West Java), Bandung (West Java), Tangerang Selatan (Banten), Solo (Central Java), Surabaya (East Java), Padang (West Sumatra), and Makassar (South Sulawesi).

Head of Education Equality of the Education and Culture Ministry, Subi Sudarto, cited the Ministry Regulation No. 129/2014, which mentioned three types of homeschooling.

First was single homeschooling, in which parents became the teachers. They decided to teach their children at home on their own, with their own methods and learning materials.

Second was hybrid homeschooling, where parents of single homeschooling built networks so that they could help each other in the learning processes. For example, if some parents found that they were not competent in one learning material, other parents could help them teach the material to their children.

The third was homeschooling community, that was fully established by certain agencies, and already had organized curriculum and certain teachers, although the learning process was still conducted at home. 

”We’ve difficulties in gathering data of single homeschooling. Thus, it is also difficult to monitor them, Subi said.

The discussion mainly talked about the potential risk related to the spread of extreme and intolerant ideologies through homeschooling. The PPIM research also found that several homeschooling, regardless their types, adopted anti-Pancasila ideology. 

Research coordinator Arif Subhan cited Education and Culture Ministry Regulation No. 19/24, which regulated that all parents, or representatives of parents, who implemented homeschooling were required to register to their respective regional education agency, and all homeschooling communities must obtain operational permits from the agency.

However, most of the education agencies across the country visited by PPIM researchers could not provide the data of homeschooling operating in their areas. This loose monitoring had paved the way for the emergence of exclusive homeschooling, that usually carried out a mission to indoctrinate students to reject the nation concept.

Secretary-General of Homeschooling and Alternative Education Association (Asah Pena) argued that homeschooling basically did not mean to implement self-exclusivism and keep children away from society. Naturally, the real purpose of homeschooling was to provide access to education for children who were unable to go to formal schools.

She went on to say that the purpose of education was not just about developing the potential of the students, let alone about the parents’ ambitions. Homeschooling, she said, were responsible to direct students to interact with wider communities. For that, the homeschooling must also teach comprehensive language skills, as well as civic and national knowledge. Learning methods and schedules could adjust to the children’s learning patterns.

“Asah Pena will encourage homeschooling participants to do registration to the education agencies and formulate a standard reporting guideline for parents and homeschooling communities. The guideline will not affect the learning processes,” she said.