The ethics of home schooling

Should parents be allowed to educate their children at home, outside of the mainstream education system?

Home schooling is thriving in the United States, but it is illegal in Germany and in Sweden a bill will soon be presented to Parliament that will make it impossible to educate children at home, unless the child is unable to attend school.

Europe Today's James Coomarasamy examines the issues in detail, with contributions from:

• The BBC's Michael Steininger, who meets a family home-schooling their children in Germany

• Bertil Ostberg, Sweden's State Secretary for Education

• Graham Badman, the author of a controversial British report which called for greater regulation of home-schooling

• Peter Kowalke from the United States, who was home-schooled himself and is the maker of the film, Grown without Schooling.

• Annette Taberner, a trustee of Education Otherwise, a British charity that supports families educating children at home

First broadcast 17 March 2010