Home schooling was one of the most welcomed ideas when parents had their children sent back home from school, many of them being candidates. Thanks to the mass media and available websites for online courses, students that have had access to these have gained out of them.
But here’s the thing; parents and children don’t care anymore about studying, and in this African setting, some children are given tons of work at home because parents don’t care anymore. On top of that, here are other reasons it has totally failed to work out.
Keep in mind, though, that some parents are actually so serious about it, also some students that just don’t want to get back to where they were before, especially those that were just about to become candidates, so they have kept on studying despite the hindrances.
10 Reasons Why Home Schooling is a Total Flop
The following are the 10 reasons as to why home schooling in East Africa is a complete flop.
1. Indefinite lockdown.
When different presidents issued lockdown and immediate evacuation of schools, everybody didn’t take this as something to worry about, because we all thought it would not be long until the world found an antidote or vaccine, and things would go back to normal. We were absolutely wrong.
The lockdown has just taken away much more than we all expected, and it seems unready to stop yet. Whatever the doctors are doing, they have no vaccine yet, and that means we might even go till December, still fighting this pandemic.
As a result, many students have given up, parents too, because they think this is just not.about to end yet.
2. It’s hectic.
I mean, with home schooling, we’re in a kind of situation where parents have to help out some of their children with their studies, especially those in kindergarten and elementary school. It’s like, these kids don’t actually think their parents have forgotten all that primary stuff.
Therefore, this puts the parents in a kind of position where they have to learn things first so that they can teach the same things to their kids. It’s just too hectic that many parents are no longer enthusiastic about it.
3. Parents are too busy.
So, the lockdown started and everybody was at home, parents and all their children. That way, they were able to help their students by directly teaching them, or simply staying around to supervise. Something as simple as “Sit down, it’s time to read” or “tune in to this channel, it’s where they’re teaching that subject” was highly effective, because parents are usually the ones to remind their kids when to read.
Now that they’re not around, children are just free that they don’t even remind themselves to read. Coming back home, parents are just so tired that it’s hard for them to ask about anything related to studying, and that’s how it has totally failed.
4. No internet and gadgets.
In many African and East African homes, it’s hard to find certain gadgets necessary for communication. I’ve actually been to some remote areas where you find a household with no radio set, TV or even a mobile phone. Many people live in that kind of poverty, though it’s probably alien to you.
Therefore, a student that has no access to a smartphone or a computer, or something as simple as failing to afford the data subscriptions, will have no access to online courses, and a student that lives in a home without access to TV, radio or newspaper will have no access to the study materials or the lessons conducted on air.
5. Improper distribution of study materials.
Examining across the border, our neighbor Uganda, many free study materials have been given to homes in urban areas, yet those same people are capacitated to buy their own copies of newspapers that have those materials, and even have access to TV, radio and the internet.
This is unfair because many students at the countryside have no access to all those above and still haven’t received the self study materials. This puts them at a very disadvantaged position because they are left out.
6. Parents are not strict.
In some homes, many parents are just not serious enough with their students, in a way that they are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want to do it. This means they will not be pushed to study or do anything else that benefits them.
That kind of permissiveness breeds laziness in the students and therefore, home schooling can never happen in such a place.
7. Lazy students.
Many parents try hard to urge their children to study every now and then, but their children just don’t yield, to a point that they can actually do nothing about it, because some parents just can’t force them, or some children go wild when a lot of pressure is put on them.
8. Some students have no books.
Because the lockdown on schools was abrupt and many students, teachers and parents expected it to be short lived, many students didn’t come back home with their books. This means they don’t have anything to read, even when they feel like it, and there’s no way to get those books from their schools. This is with the boarding school students and the university students that left all their books in their hostels.
In remote areas where self study materials have not been distributed and there’s limited access to mass media, the students will have absolutely nothing to read, therefore being diverted.
9. Some students work.
Now, this is entirely dependent on two factors; age and family background. Due to the partial lifting of the lockdown, some businesses have been allowed to operate and as a result, many parents have started to take their children to work with them. As a result, they come back too tired to read, thus losing the whole idea of home schooling in thin air.
10. Drop-outs.
Due to the lockdown, some students have totally lost purpose in education. They have actually decided to stop right there and start doing other “more valuable” things with their lives. Many boy children have dropped out because they have the burning urge to work and earn money for themselves, so they feel like education will be a waste of time, some because their parents have died during this period, and many girl children because they want to get married.
Dropping out of school means totally lost hope on the part of education and though it doesn’t happen so often today, it still does.
Conclusion.
Considering the factors above and the African setting in general, it’s actually valid to say that home schooling is a total flop, because parents and children have lost interest in it. The major reason is because they don’t know when this will end, and they think 2020 might be a dead year. Putting all this in consideration, political and social leaders have to devise means of encouraging parents and their children to revive the activity, so that students don’t go back to school clueless.