Home education consultation: Speak out to protect the role of parents
by Colin Hart, Christian Institute:
The Government is holding a ‘call for evidence on home education’. It seems minded to introduce a mandatory register for parents who home school. This undermines the principle in English law that parents, not the state, are ultimately responsible for educating their children. A register effectively becomes a licensing scheme, where parents have to get permission from the state to home educate their children.
For many parents there could be circumstances where they might want to take their child out of school and educate them at home, at least on a temporary basis. It might be that a school has repeatedly failed to tackle bullying. Maybe a child develops a particular medical condition. Or it might be that a school relentlessly undermines the values of the home.
At present this decision is up to parents. A register puts this fundamental principle at risk. Please respond before the call for evidence closes on Monday 2 July.
Our law is consistent with the biblical principle that parents have the ultimate responsibility for raising children. Parents have a God-given authority over their children (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:4). Of course, the Government must step in if there is mistreatment, including where children are not actually being educated. But otherwise the state does not intervene.
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