Compulsory Attendance Age
6–15 years old
Estimated Number of Homeschoolers
2,100 children
Legal Status
According to the new Education Act, compulsory education can be fulfilled in the form of individual/homeschooling, performed without the pupil’s regular attendance of formal classes. A permit for individual schooling is given by the headteacher of the school where the pupil was enrolled based on a written application by a legal representative of the pupil. Homeschooling is only permitted for pupils at the primary level of education, but it has been pilot-tested at the lower secondary level since the 2007–08 school year.
Homeschooled students have the same rights to the use of teaching aids as other pupils and may participate in school events. The course of his/her individual education depends on agreement with the leaders of the school, provided that legal conditions are observed. The school offers methodological assistance to parents (working out the curriculum and choosing textbooks), organizes meetings with parents, keeps records on the pupil, and invites the pupil twice a year for testing.
Children may be educated individually by persons who have completed their secondary education, which usually means parents or, less commonly, grandparents. It is also possible to hire a teacher. Some families opt for traditional didactic approaches while others make use of the opportunity to teach at home “in a different manner”, understanding education as a matter of lifestyle. Families involved in the Association for Home Schooling often turn to shared experience as an important influence on their chosen form of homeschooling.
The reasons why families choose to homeschool vary. There may be a problem with the accessibility of the school, bad experiences with schools or groups of children on the part of the parents, varying lifestyle or religious beliefs, concern for the child, a child’s disability, efforts to protect the child from social or health risks, or distrust. Although parents who choose homeschooling are usually satisfied with the experience, it is a rather marginal alternative in the Czech Republic.