New Schools Bill poses threat to traditional education, Charedi rabbi warns

Charedi campaigners are gearing up for a battle with the government ahead of new proposals which they will claim will represent unwarranted state intrusion into religious education.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is shortly to be introduced into Parliament, would make it compulsory for local authorities to maintain registers of children who are home-schooled or otherwise taught outside school settings.

But some within the Charedi community fear that this will be merely the first step in regulating yeshivot, which are currently not defined as schools and therefore outside the scope of Ofsted inspection.

Estimates suggest that 1,500 or more boys aged from 13 to 16 currently learn in unregistered yeshivot in Stamford Hill where they receive little or no secular education. In some instances, families combine yeshivah with some home-schooling in secular subjects.

According to a blog posted on the government’s Education Hub today, “whilst many home educators do a good job, this is not the case for all. It is vital all home education is suitable and safe and that no child falls through the cracks”.

Families would be able to continue with home schooling as long as they provided a “good, safe education”, the government said. The measures in the Bill would “ensure that the most vulnerable children cannot be withdrawn from school until it is confirmed that this would be in their best interests, and that the education to be provided outside of school is suitable.”

How local authorities will decide what counts as suitable education remains to be determined.

But, under the Bill, parents will lose the automatic right to home education if a child is subject to a child protection investigation or protection plan.

Rabbi Asher Gratt, president of the British Rabbinical Union, a conservative group within the Charedi community which has lobbied to protect traditional yeshivah education, was scathing about the home school register.

“The Bill not only criminalises conscientious parents who seek to provide an education aligned with their religious or philosophical beliefs, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for the erosion of fundamental civil liberties,” he said.

Describing it as a “slippery slope”, he said, “Today it’s a register for children not in school. Tomorrow, it’s control over every aspect of family life. Once the state assumes control of our children’s education, the loss of parental autonomy is inevitable.”

The previous Conservative government had intended similar measures, but the proposed legislation that contained them was scrapped.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Storey has since introduced a Private Member’s Bill to achieve the same goal, but the government’s move will now take preference.

Other proposals in the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill include making the national curriculum binding on academies, as it is in other state schools.

The number of home-schooled children has been on the rise for many years, with estimates suggesting there are 125,000 or more in the country.

However, Chinuch UK, the umbrella body representing Charedi schools, fears that the government’s new tax on independent schools — VAT on fees and the removal of business rates relief — along with the cost of increased employer national insurance could lead to the closure of Charedi independent schools and a further influx of children into home-schooling.