Vote in the canton of Schaffhausen – Stricter rules for home schooling – News

The canton of Schaffhausen wants to change the school law. Homeschooling should only be possible with a teaching diploma.

A group of so-called “homeschoolers” in the canton held a referendum against the planned change in the Schaffhausen school law and collected over 1,600 signatures. They are opposed to the fact that the possibility of teaching children privately is being restricted.

The boom happened in the pandemic

Homeschooling experienced a boom, especially during the corona pandemic and because of the controversial mask requirement in schools. Before that, there were only four families in the canton of Schaffhausen who taught their children at home, but now there are 27. It affects around 40 children. The problem: private lessons are not yet clearly regulated by law in the canton of Schaffhausen.

The government and the cantonal council want to change that. Parliament unanimously decided that only those who have a recognized teaching diploma are allowed to teach privately.

Homeschoolers find this discriminatory. One of them is Eva Brütsch. She herself has a teaching diploma and could continue to teach her three children at home even if the revision were accepted. “But many other families are being deprived of this opportunity,” she criticizes. “They would have to send their children back to school situations from which they sometimes suffered a lot.”

The fear that children will not be taught properly by parents without a teaching diploma is untenable. “These parents in particular go to great lengths to respond to their children and teach them everything they need.” Adherence to the curriculum is also checked more closely by the school inspector through semi-annual visits than at the elementary school, says Brütsch.

The homeschoolers also point out that people without a diploma are now also teaching at elementary schools because of the teacher shortage.

Legend:

Almost all parties and Schaffhausen cantonal councils want school children to be privately taught only by teachers with a recognized diploma.

Keystone / Christian Beutler

Proponents are concerned about the welfare of the children

The supporters of the school law do not accept this. “Later changers are integrated into the school team and are also coached during the lessons,” emphasizes the school officer for the city of Schaffhausen and FDP cantonal councilor Raphaël Rohner. In contrast to homeschoolers, these would not take on more than a maximum of two subjects. “Without a teaching diploma, it is simply not possible to teach the entire range of subjects from primary school to the end of high school, as homeschoolers want to do,” criticizes Rohner.

He cares about the well-being of the children. With the new school law, they should have the guarantee that they would be taught at home at the same quality level as children who attend elementary school. This is the only way to ensure a seamless transition to vocational training or high school.

All parties – with the exception of the EDU – have decided to say yes.