The rise in homeschooling is rapidly increasing as unhappy parents have embraced the unconventional education stream.
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According to the NSW Education Standards Authority, a 2017 homeschooling report found an 18 per cent increase to children becoming homeschooled in one year from 2016.
This equates to approximately 4700 students in the state being homeschooled, with 2.89 per cent from the Riverina.
For Wagga mum Marion Jones, she never thought she would be homeschooling her 12 -year-old son.
But after her son was bullied at his local primary school and then refusing to attend, she resorted to homeschooling.
“My very bright child was scared to go to school and now he is excelling at home,” Mrs Jones said.
Mrs Jones and her son have been registered by NESA for homeschooling in years 6 and 7.
The Wagga mum said she was unhappy with the education system and argued it needs a “shake up”.
“Our NSW schooling system is so rigid and doesn’t factor in children’s individual needs,” she said.
“I believe the school system is in turmoil as teachers are getting swamped with too much work and teaching two curricular in a split class.
“If homeschooling numbers are increasing dramatically, there’s a problem.
“The biggest benefit of homeschooling is that I have a happy child who is reengaged in learning and I’m giving him a wider education,” Mrs Jones said.
Mrs Jones said there are over 150 homeschooling families in Wagga and reasons for this home education have been primarily because of bullying and inadequate special needs support, especially for autistic students.
Linda, another local parent said she removed her son from his high school school following reports of bullying.
Linda said she did not have the “capacity” to homeschool, but if she had more resources it would have been her preferred choice.
“As I was a sole parent holding down the fort, I just didn’t have the capacity to homeschool my son, however I would have done this a long time ago if I could,” she said.
“I was relying on a school system that is really flawed and as a result my son had a very difficult educational journey, which meant we was getting lost in the school system.”
Her son moved to the Riverina Community College where he received a hospitality certificate.
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A former Wagga primary school teacher Geoff Amos said many things have changed since he retired from the classroom almost 16 years ago.
“There are so many new subjects these days and areas of learning that I don’t know how things are fitted into the curriculum,” he said.
“The one thing that has remained consistent is the hours in a school day and year.