The Queen’s speech today not only heralded the start of Labour’s general election campaign but effectively declared war on home education in England , as plans for a parent licensing scheme (described as compulsory registration and monitoring) were announced as part of the proposed Children, Schools and Families Bill.
There is doubt as to whether there will be time for the UK government to force through such an ambitious legislative programme in the 70 days it has remaining before Parliament must be dissolved. There is also a high probablility of mass non co-operation with any new regulations by home educators in England, which will inevitably impact on council budgets and destroy relationships between local authorities and home educating families.
As we Scots say, they’ve got “nae chance!”
Understand they’re bypassing citizen’s rights in a bow to UN policy. The question isn’t whether the children are well educated, either. It’s all tied into the rights of the child legislation. I wrote an article on it here:
http://tinroofcottage.typepad.com/love_in_a_tin_roof_cottag/2009/12/britain-just-had-a-report-written-by-a-man-in-authority-badman–and-will-now-force-homeschooling-parents-to-allow-governmen.html
another article
http://tinroofcottage.typepad.com/love_in_a_tin_roof_cottag/2009/12/live-in-the-uk-the-un-now-owns-your-children.html
We are really worried in England. The reason I am looking at the Schoolhouse website is that if these regulations ever come in they will effectively outlaw autonomous education in England. We are seriously thinking of moving to Scotland!
Any ideas of where is best for home education?
Hopefully the CSF Bill won’t make it through, and the Tories seem committed to reversing any HE related legislation in England even if it does, but Schoolhouse has been inundated with enquiries from concerned families who don’t want to live under a Nazi law south of the border.
Our list of Scottish local authorities is still a work in progress but can be found here: http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk/links/local-authorities. The national Scottish guidance (which was so conveniently ignored by Badman) is statutory and so LA must have regard to it, and the SNP Scottish Education Minister, Mike Russell, is well briefed on home education matters.
As far as I can tell, the place right now with the most protection for homeschooling families is the US, though the amount of protection varies by state.