K-12 students leaving the regular schools

This increase in homeschooling is also corroborated with the huge numbers of students leaving the regular school in the USA. In 2022, 49.6 million students attended public schools, which is a decrease of nearly 1.2 million from 2019, when enrollment peaked at 50.8 million. The National Center for Education Statistics projects that enrollment will drop again in 2023. And as per most researchers it is due to the growing popularity of home schooling in the USA.

This is the scenario in the USA. There are similar situations in most of the countries. But we do not have data. In India thousands of students are opting for homeschooling. Students are leaving regular schools to join online schools. They don’t go to any school; they attend classes from their home. They get the same certification which a student going to regular school gets. They get more choices in terms of subjects, timing and board. Schools like Vikalp Online School give the option of Board to its students. Students can appear for the tenth board without Hindi, Mathematics and Science. They can choose Psychology as a subject in their tenth board.

Online schools work for all kinds of students. In Vikalp Online school there are only 5 or 6 students in the class. Teachers can pay individual attention to each student. Unlike regular school, the pace of the class is according to students. In a regular school there are 40 to 50 students in each class. It works for average students. Both below and above average students are not happy in regular school. Above average student finds the class boring due to repetition of the concepts. Below average students are unable to catch up with other students. They are left behind. In online school each student is taken care of.

In Vikalp Online School concepts are not introduced as given facts. There are no lectures. Concepts are introduced using learning tools. Students are supposed to do activities and discover concepts on their own. Teachers just guide them. They discover concepts on their own at their own pace. Once students start understanding, teachers ask a lot of probing questions. This helps students in reflecting what they have understood. Consequently, they analyze and reevaluate what they have understood.

Learning continues, and students apply their knowledge in doing project works and exercises in their books. While application students are supposed to apply the concepts creatively. This is done with each concept, every day. Gradually students not only remember and understand but are able to analyze, evaluate, apply and create. This skill and ability are the need of the hour. Job market is changing more rapidly than we think. Advent of Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed it completely.

Jobs related to repetitive work will cease to exist. This is not only true for jobs like typist and accountant.  Even the coders doing the regular coding will lose their job. All these jobs will be automated. It will be done by machines. Only the jobs which require critical thinking will remain. Critical thinking means ability to analyze, apply, reevaluate and create. All these skills and abilities are not taught in a regular school. Students would be required to develop these schools after completing their schools and college.

But it’s not true for the students of Vikalp Online School. They have done this while learning each concept right from nursery.  And now they will have an edge over students of regular school who will have to learn these skills from scratch. All their skills and abilities acquired in their school days will have no relevance. It’s not that students or parents are not aware about this change in the job market. No wonder a lot of students are leaving regular school and joining online school. But the academia of school and college are not ready to make this change.