Why Doesn’t Your Child Go To School? A Study On Homeschooling Motivation and Behaviour in Singapore

Abstract

This is an exploratory study that examines the homeschooling behaviour of parents in Singapore. In a country where public education is globally recognised as excellent, why do parents still opt for the alternative of homeschooling? The specific research questions are 1) why do people homeschool in Singapore and 2) how do they homeschool? By endeavouring to understand homeschooling in the unique context of Singapore, the contribution of this study is twofold –first, to address the gap in literature on alternative education in Singapore, and second, to provide a different contextual study of the broader homeschooling phenomenon. Understanding the motivations for homeschooling is also especially important for public sector stakeholders in Singapore, given the nation’s strong emphasis on education and high reliance on human capital.