Education is compulsory in Britain, whether at school "or otherwise"; and "other wise" is

becoming more popular. In 1999, only 12,000 children were listed as being home-schooled. Now that figure is 20,000, according to Mike Fortune-Wood, an educational researcher. But he thinks that, as most home-taught children never go near a school and are therefore invisible to officialdom, the total is probably nearer 50,000.

As usual, Britain lies between Europe and America. In Germany, home teaching is illegal. In America, it's huge: over 1 million children are home-schooled, mainly by religious parents. There are a small minority among British home-educators, who consist mainly of two types: hippyish middle-class parents who dislike schools on principle, and those whose children are unhappy at school.

The growth is overwhelmingly in this second category, says Roland Meighan, a home-education expert and publisher. One reason is that technology has made home-education easier. The internet allows parents to know as much as teachers. It is also a way of organizing get-togethers, sharing tips and outwitting official hassles. That supplements e vents such as the annual home-education festival last week, where 1,600 parents and children enjoyed Egyptian dancing and labyrinth-building on a muddy hillside in Devon.

But a bigger reason for the growth is changing attitudes. Centralisation, government targets and a focus on exams have made state schools less customer friendly and more boring. Classes are still based strictly on age groups, which is hard for children who differ sharply from the average. Mr. Fortune-Wood notes that the National Health Service is now far more accommodating of patients' wishes about timing, venue and treatment. "It's happened in health. Why can't it happen in education？" he asks.

Perhaps because other businesses tend to make more effort to satisfy individual needs, parents are getting increasingly picky. In the past, if their child was bullied, not coping or bored, they tended to put up with it. Now they complain, and if that doesn't work they vote with their (children's) feet. Some educationalists worry that home-schooling may hurt children's psychological and educational development. Home educators cite statistics showing that it helps both educational attainment and the course of grown-up life.

Labour's latest big idea in education is "personalisation", which is intended to al low much more flexible timing and choice of subjects. In theory, that might stem the drift to home—schooling. Many home-educators would like to be able to use school facilities occasionally—in science lessons, say, or to sit exams. But for now, schools, and the officials who regulate them, like the near-monopoly created by the rule of "all or nothing".

The term "otherwise" (Line 1, Paragraph 1) most probably means

A．the education in a developed nation.

B．the wave of compulsory education.

C．the popularity of teaching at school.

D．the trend of home-schooling.