How homeschooling works in Kenya

Educating a child is, for many parents, a lifetime achievement.

This pushes many parents to strive to ensure that they offer the best achievable quality of education for their children.

In Kenya, the options we have include Public School Education, Private School Education, and homeschooling.

According to the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association, HSLDA, the Kenyan constitution does not directly address the issue of homeschooling in the law.

“Homeschoolers currently take the position that homeschooling is not specifically addressed in the law.”

“Following the implementation of the Basic Education Act (No. 14 of 2013), some government and school officials now say that homeschooling is illegal.”

“However, homeschoolers are continuing to pursue amendments to the education law in parliament to explicitly recognize homeschooling.”

“In addition, the Alternative Education Policy recognizes non-formal education. Currently, there is no interaction between homeschoolers and government.”

Homeschoolers in Kenya ask, “Please pray that our government recognizes and endorses homeschooling in Kenya. There are not enough schools to educate all children up to the secondary level. Officials should recognize those parents who are doing it themselves and support them.” Says the defense association.

What homeschooling entails

Child’s consent

The child’s opinion always matters, because, as they say ‘a willing student is helpful, it is important to consider the opinion of the child even as you home school.

It is also advisable to take the child’s opinion seriously when they call it quits on homeschooling.

You should listen to them to understand what and where you need to change in your homeschooling.

Commit your time

Once you choose to homeschool your child, then it is important always to make follow-ups to know whether it is working, that is, if you are not the teacher.

Without time commitment, the chances are that your child could fail.

Finances

Homeschooling can be successful without having to spend much.

But if the parent is the teacher, it means that the household will be on the one hand short of income generation.

This is because, since the parent needs to be closer to the student (Child), they might not have time.

So it is advisable to find an external income generating source apart from the teacher (Parent).

Spouses come in handy.

Personal Sacrifice

You might want to take a vacation or a break from teaching.

This, however, may not be possible since you need to be close.

As a homeschooling teacher, just like any other teacher. Educating comes first before everything.

You can create a schedule that you could use to operate in order to create recreational time for both you and your homeschooling student.

Long-term Plan

What do you aim to achieve? How do you intend to achieve this? What are your plans for the child? These are the questions you need to ask yourself.

Like other formal education means like schools, there are exams like KCSE and KCPE, which determine whether you move to the next level.

So far, in Kenya, you can directly register for the final KCSE examinations in a school and sit for it.

KCSE results mainly determine whether one joins a University for a bachelors’ degree.