Help for parents who want to home-school

THE AFRICAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION (AHF) wants to see the Ministry of Education embrace its Home Directive Learning Service (HDLS).

This appeal is coming from president Paul ‘Simba’ Rock who said over the last year, they had developed the HDLS to help parents with their applications for home-schooling to the ministry. 

Rock said the effort started as a result of their involvement last year with the Sifahne family where parents Ijui Jah and Isartes Ibre were charged with keeping their children at home without permission from the ministry to home-school. That case led the AHF to assist the parents with getting the paperwork and documentation together to start home-schooling the two young children.

So far they have worked with about four sets of parents who were granted permission earlier this year. These included a Seventh-Day Adventist couple from England who home-schooled before moving to Barbados, and a parent of a four-year-old autistic girl who from next month will be joining the (HDLS), a component of the AHF’s Barbados Alkebulan Academy for Social Empowerment (BAASE).

Rock, who spoke from the foundation’s Two Mile Hill, St Michael headquarters yesterday, said the current curricula with which they worked included mathematics, English, social studies, introduction to Spanish, sign language and health, with more to be added.

He said his mother Linda Rock, a retired teacher with more than 30 years’ experience, helped to direct the lesson plans and activities, but the curriculum would be tailored to suit individual family needs.