According to data from the Czech Ministry of Education, this is the highest figure since 2005, when this form of education was officially introduced. At that time, only 546 children chose individual education. The rising trend may be linked to the overall increase in the number of primary school pupils or to children’s mental health problems. Although this option does not have a uniform form, it is not automatically granted, and children must still undergo mandatory assessment.
“Our children are educated at home. They are currently in fourth and third grade. The youngest will start first grade in September,” says mother Dominika Čepil. The parents decided to homeschool their children for several reasons. Among other things, they are not satisfied with how and what is taught in most traditional schools.
“We want them to learn at their own pace and to be able to spend time on things they enjoy and find fulfilling — rather than having to devote time to a subject they are not drawn to simply to improve their grade,” Čepil explains. The family travels a lot with the children, which is why they educate them themselves. In the future, they are considering a democratic school or a community learning group.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, 7,592 children are being homeschooled this school year. Ten years ago, for example, the figure was more than 5,000 lower. “It should be emphasised that the number of pupils in primary schools is also rising, and individual — home — education at lower secondary level has been permitted since the 2016/2017 school year. Until then, it was only possible at primary level,” explains Ondřej Macura, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education.
According to educator Stanislava Kratochvílová, who founded the project To Teach or Not to Teach and specialises in supporting families in choosing their own educational path, the trend is also driven by greater awareness. “Current events over time may certainly have had an impact on the number of homeschooled children — for example, the Covid situation between 2020 and 2022. But I would rather assume that the option of homeschooling is still relatively young and is only gradually becoming more widely known,” she says.
During a pandemic, education is changing, with a growing interest in the individual and deferrals (in Czech)
Despite its growing popularity, homeschooling remains more of a supplementary option within the Czech education system. Homeschooled children account for just 0.76 percent of all school-age children this school year. According to the Czech School Inspectorate, homeschooling cannot be seen as a standard alternative, but rather as a specific way of fulfilling compulsory school attendance.
In practice, this means that the child is formally enrolled at a specific school, where they regularly undergo assessment, while everyday teaching is provided by the parents or a person authorised by them. It is the schools that register these pupils that the Inspectorate focuses on during inspections. According to Czech School Inspectorate spokesperson Anna Brzybohatá, the authority has not identified any systemic shortcomings in this area. “The key role is played by how cooperation between the school and the legal guardians is set up, and by the way pupils’ learning outcomes are continuously assessed,” she noted.
Families’ motivations for leaving the traditional school system vary. Libor Mikulášek, director of the Brno Pedagogical-Psychological Counselling Centre, points to an increasingly common reason related to children’s mental health. “Recently, the number of applications has been rising mainly for health reasons stemming from the child’s psychological condition — anxiety or psychiatric difficulties, and so on,” he says.
According to Mikulášek, other common reasons include parents being unable to find a suitable school for their child that matches their expectations. He also mentions problems within the peer group, an exceptional sports workload, or the fact that the child’s legal guardians spend a lot of time abroad for work.
Lack of seats and empty classrooms. Demographic differences are another challenge for education (in Czech)
Kratochvílová emphasises that homeschooling is not a universal solution for everyone. The form of teaching itself also does not have a single uniform model. “Families use a wide range of educational approaches, from a traditional school-at-home model to alternative project-based learning, community groups where children learn together, and even democratic unschooling approaches,” she explains.
While families used to obtain information about education mainly through face-to-face meetings, today, according to the educator, they draw inspiration primarily from the internet. “I do feel, however, that homeschooled children tend to benefit from this situation thanks to their parents’ flexibility. We see this above all in their good level of media literacy and English, while these are areas we still struggle with in regular school attendance. Each era simply brings different challenges for us as parents, and it is up to us whether we turn them into benefits,” she adds.
Nature instead of benches. Interest in community schools is growing (in Czech)
According to Macura, homeschooling is not an automatic entitlement and its approval is subject to certain rules. “The headteacher of the school where the pupil has been admitted to fulfil compulsory school attendance may authorise individual education only if there are genuinely serious reasons for granting it,” he emphasised.
According to him, parents must also attach an opinion from a school counselling facility to their application. Even during homeschooling, the school remains the guarantor of quality, as confirmed by the mandatory assessment in all subjects every semester.
An article written by Klára Plotzová, avu (CT), initially published on 10 May 2026 at 07:30 (CEST)