Homeschooling in Singapore

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN SINGAPORE

Not sure if this has been posted before.

Below are some reproduced some parts of the report (Thanks, Chern).

Please refer to http://www.moe.gov.sg/initiatives/compulsory-education/files/ce-report.pdf for complete report.

Home-Schooling
26.
A small number of parents have strong views on the upbringing and
education for their children and choose to educate their children at home.
While home-schooling has gained popularity in recent years in some countries such as the United States, home-schooling in Singapore is advocated mostly by a small number among the Christian community. They usually adopt curriculum packages designed for home-schoolers from other countries. A few of them have indicated the possibility of civil disobedience if they are not allowed to home-school their children under CE.
27.
The Committee is concerned that while home-schooling children may be
able to acquire the necessary core of knowledge and skills in the secular
subjects at home, they may not have sufficient interaction with their peers, and knowledge of the Singapore society gained through such interactions. Also, if too many parents opt for home-schooling for their children, the situation may become undesirable, as a community that withdraws into itself is contrary to the basic tenets of our multi-racial and multi-religious society. Unlike educational
2
The age norm for Primary 1 is six years by 1 January of the year of admission.
The correct ages for subsequent years follow from this age.
Page 22
18 institutions such as the madrasahs and San Yu Adventist School, which can be benchmarked and inspected, it is more difficult for MOE to monitor the effectiveness of home-schooling. Some members of the Committee are therefore of the view that home-schoolers should not be exempted from CE.
However, other members feel that it would be unreasonable for the
Government to penalise these parents, most of whom take a keen interest in ensuring that their home-schooled children do well in their studies.
28.
On balance, the Committee is prepared to recommend that home-
schoolers be allowed exemption from CE, but only if the parents are able to satisfy MOE that the two key objectives of CE can be achieved for their
children. It is thus proposed that the parents of every child who is to be home-schooled must apply to MOE for exemption from CE. They should be required to furnish information on the curriculum and the educational outcomes of the home-schooling programme, and indicate how the child will receive instruction in National Education and participate in community involvement programmes, as well as any other information stipulated by MOE. Besides meeting the same PSLE benchmark as pupils who attend the San Yu Adventist School, home-schoolers must also pass the National Education quiz which all pupils in national schools are required to do before PSLE.
29.
The Committee further proposes that the progress of home-schoolers be
closely monitored, and that MOE reserves the right to withdraw its approval for exemption from CE at any stage. MOE may also require home-schoolers to sit for tests at certain points of their primary education. The more stringent requirements for home-schoolers to be exempted from CE (as stated in para 28 above) will help MOE to ensure that home-schooling is not used by irresponsible parents as a loop-hole to circumvent the introduction of CE and hence negate the purpose for which CE is introduced. MOE should regularly review its criteria for exemption to ensure that they are adequate in ensuring that home-schoolers meet the minimum requirements to fulfil the two key objectives of CE. As with the madrasahs and San Yu Adventist School, the requirement to apply for exemption from CE will only apply to children of Primary 1 age after CE is introduced.


http://www.moe.gov.sg/initiatives/compu ... report.pdf