Yuan Zheng (Yangcheng Evening News): In 1997, China signed the United Nation's International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The covenant reads: parents can choose for their children non-public schools that suit their religious and moral beliefs. Private schools and parents' rights to send their children to these schools should be respected.

Education should be conducted in different modes and whether the mode employed is mainstream or not does not matter. As long as the law does not forbid it, private schools are allowed to adopt whatever methods they like. In this sense, private schools are always the locomotive for education reforms.

Not advisable

Luo Zhigang (www.cnhubei.com): Because of dissatisfaction with the current education system, some parents are choosing to homeschool their children. Children are being homeschooled at every level—kindergarten, primary, junior middle and even senior middle school.

However, homeschooling is a rich people's game, which cannot be expanded to the whole of society. Only wealthy families can afford to provide effective and comprehensive education to their children at home. The poor cannot possibly successfully homeschool their children. The majority of China's residents are still farmers, and even ordinary working class urban residents cannot possibly find the time to cope with the demands of home-schooling.

Besides, private schooling is a profit-driven industry. Taking advantage of some rich people's desire to be unique and different from others, some individuals and organizations have begun to start the so-called "modern sishu (private school in ancient China)." Education is critical to the country's future, it's necessary to properly deal with the relevant institutions to ensure children's healthy growth.

Niu Xiaohua (www.cnr.cn): I don't understand why parents choose schooling at home. Is it because of their dissatisfaction with the current examination-oriented education system, or because they think what schools impart is simply wrong?

In schools, children not only pick up academic knowledge, but also the knowledge of how to communicate with others. Students need rich extracurricular activities and interaction with classmates, so that they can live better when they leave schools and fit into society.

Today, most children are the only child in a family and in need of companions. If they are limited to homes, unable to interact with their peers, cooperation and communication will be very difficult to manage when they go into society. The experience of going to school imparts far more than book knowledge.

Qingzuozheliao (bbs.longhoo.net): The biggest shortcoming of the current education system is the lack of respect for a student's personality. Parents who homeschool their children aim to nurture their children's personalities and this is a great leap forward. However, these parents have not fully understood how a child's personality develops and what the final aim of education is.

A person's personality will become rich and strong only in the process of interacting with others. Everyone is part of society. Children are happiest when they are interacting with others. This interaction helps open their minds and makes them stronger in social life.

Those who advocate homeschooling are paying a lot of respect to their children's personalities, but nowadays what students need most is to learn to respect others, or we'll see a future society lacking in love and mutual respect.

Anyway, to educate children at home is a blind and impulsive choice. There might be one or two successful examples, but this does not necessarily mean that this education mode is replicable. For the majority of children and their parents, homeschooling will not lead to a good outcome.

Even if there are really tens of thousands of children studying at home in other countries, that does not mean this education mode will also work for Chinese children.

Zheng Xiaoqi (Beijing Evening News): Whether they choose to go to university at home or abroad, children brought up at home schools will eventually have to face real school life, which will compel them to compete and cooperate with others.

After children reach a certain age, their peers become more important to them than their parents. Healthy psychological development requires them to interact with classmates. In home schools, children have no outlet to express their need to socialize. Thus, it cannot compete with normal school education.

Some parents are worried that school education will kill children's personality and creativity, but to a large extent, school education is irreplaceable. During the compulsory education period, children are still incapable of making proper choices for themselves. Parents therefore decide to educate them at home. But what if these children want to go to standard school when they grow up? What will the parents do then?