KOCHI: Jofin Joseph, the co-founder of Totto Learning, a Kochi-based startup that is redefining early learning, says, “Homeschooling has become a necessity rather than a trend. For children up to six years, learning is much more experiential and hence, online classes would not be effective for them. Children in this age group have a low attention span and have been facing problems both physically and mentally with online classes. Realising this, many parents have switched to homeschooling,” says Jofin.
He added that though homeschooling was considered an extreme step earlier, many parents are adopting it as an effective tool for educating their children focusing on the skills that they would need as opposed to mere lessons from a book.
“According to a recent survey, 46 per cent of the parents of children aged six and below who responded to the survey said they are going to continue homeschooling, either exclusively or partially even after the pandemic. From among the 46 per cent, 8.5 per cent said they would do exclusive homeschooling,” he said.
Totto Learning has been providing both offline and online training tools, not just for the children but also the parents, involving them in various activities.The open school platforms have also started gaining momentum in Kerala. “We are using the platform of National Institute of Open School (NIOS) and many admissions are coming from children of 14 years of age and above. The idea is to encourage the passion in children rather than burdening them with stress caused due to school life,” said Chitra Vinod, a special educator at Tattwa Center of Learning, Kochi.