Homeschooling, home education and home study… I am sure you have heard of these terms. Do they all mean the same thing? I wasn’t entirely sure so I asked some of the homeschool providers in the Philippines about these terms.

According to VCIS or Victory Christian International School, “Homestudy and Home Education are both under homeschooling. When we say HomeStudy, the parents/teachers follow a curriculum and is linked with a school, whereas, Home Education is an open curriculum and more independent. What we offer here in VCIS is the HomeStudy Program.”

According to Edric Mendoza of TMA Homeschool, the HEP (Home Education Program) model has largely been championed by TMA Homeschool in the Philippines (since they/we have been the pioneer program of DepEd), and the HSP (Home Study Program) model by Fr. Rogelio Alarcon of Seibo College. He said “The key functional difference, in my observation, is that the HSP requires classroom-based learning in the actual conventional school facility that grants the accreditation.  HEP does not.  This therefore translates to other details like uniforms, classroom management, class scheduling, teacher-student interaction (vs parent-student), and fixed curriculum (vs flexible).  Pros and cons of each option also stems from this fundamental difference.”