O homeschooling à luz do direito social à educação

Abstract

This work seeks to study the practice of homeschooling (or home education) as a substitute for traditional schooling in Brazilian basic education, based on the Supreme Federal Court verdict in the Extraordinary Appeal no. 888.815/RS. The analysis will be based on the provision of the fundamental social right to education in the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988. The work seeks to answer the question about the existence (or nonexistence) of a constitutionally possible homeschooling, defending the position, inspired by the theory of fundamental rights, that such institution is incompatible with our Supreme Law, in spite of the decision reached by the Supreme Federal Court. For this purpose, a historical and conceptual exposition on the ideas of universal schooling and the social right to education is made, in the areas of constitutional law and public international law, with an emphasis on the Brazilian context. Afterwards, it is necessary to conceptualize homeschooling, understanding its historical origins and the political and pedagogical debates surrounding it, such as the state’s role in education, the quality of learning and the rights of children and teenagers, as well as how the subject was treated in Brazil. To conclude, there is a discussion on the constitutionality of homeschooling, bringing to light debates from foreign constitutional courts and from our own Supreme Federal Court, pondering and weighing the right to choose this form of education with the rights of children and teenagers and the obligations imposed by the Brazilian state in regards to education, especially school attendance, and analyzing legislative bills about the subject, with an emphasis on those originating from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This research is warranted by the growing interest on homeschooling in Brazil, with a plethora of bills and legal demands seeking permission and regulation. The hypothetical-deductive method is used, the procedure of bibliographical research and the qualitative approach.