The Government wants us to panic about ‘illegal schools’.
In an attempt at narrative management before key clauses of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act are enacted — clauses that will give new powers to Ofsted to enter premises and seize materials — ITV produced a news piece about the ‘scourge’ of illegal schools in Britain. The documentary segment and subsequent website article tried to show that thousands of children are educated illegally in establishments that provide only religious education, and that home education is often a ‘cover’ for use of these so called ‘illegal schools’.
Children deserve high-quality education in safe premises, and children who have been harmed in school settings should be heard and protected. The trouble with the ITV story is that anecdotes and ‘hunches’ do all the heavy lifting. The ‘findings’ are light on substantive evidence and heavy on emotion. Moreover, the documentary frames minoritised religious groups as malign in a world where it is increasingly difficult to be different.
A school is defined in the Education and Skills Act 2008 as an establishment that provides ‘full-time’ education for 5 or more children. A full-time education is at least 18 hours learning and an establishment providing 18 or more hours of education must register as an independent school. It is worth noting that this 18-hour threshold used by Ofsted for identifying ‘illegal schools’ is not relevant to elective home education. In the 1996 Education Act, parents are responsible for providing a ‘suitable’ and ‘efficient’ education for their children, but the number of hours is not specified.
We previously reported on how certain clauses of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act would bring Yeshivas (Jewish religious schools) into scope for increased regulation. In the documentary Haredi Jews were targeted for their use of Yeshiva-based education. The journalist questioned an anonymous witness who claimed that his own sons were ‘stuck’ in one such school. The witness claimed that his sons were uneducated in Maths, Science and English, but the witness was anonymous and did not identify any specific place of learning.
The story from the witness was merely an anecdote and it is not reasonable to cast aspersions on an entire community on the basis of one story from an anonymous witness. Rabbi Asher Gratt, a veteran campaigner for the rights of faith education, offered a compelling response in his Substack post making it clear that Yeshiva education does enable the development of literacy and numeracy skills, even if it is in a slightly different way to the secular school system. Critically though, at the crux of the issue is religious liberty and freedom of choice — if the Government and her media mouthpieces are prepared to decry a centuries old method of learning in a small religious community that is alarming indeed.
Shockingly, Christian home education also came under fire via a witness who said that she had been home educated using a Christian curriculum. The reporting follows the pattern of similar attacks in mainstream media, over the last ten years, on UK Christian schools and Christian home educators. These are only ever based on a very small number of disaffected individuals and also made without reference to thousands of satisfied graduates. They are critical of traditional family values and often have strong links to campaigning by Humanists UK.
This single witness considers her education to have been ‘damaging’ because it promoted ‘misogyny’ and fear of the outside world. She also said that it was like being in a ‘cult.’ She is, of course, entirely entitled to her point of view. However, we should all be alarmed by the way that her opinion was presented as fact. It is egregious that an article, purporting to examine current issues in education outside the state sector, relied on one individual’s experience of a Christian curriculum from 15–20 years earlier and presented this as sufficient evidence to condemn an entire community. This is particularly concerning given that the materials in question had been significantly revised many years before the article was published. Moreover, the journalist acknowledged that the views presented in the Christian textbooks are ‘not illegal but are controversial’, which raises the troubling question: is holding unfashionable views now to be considered tantamount to child abuse?
Crucially, Ofsted’s data, as reported by ITV, does not bear up to scrutiny. The documentary shows that 1,879 establishments were investigated and this led to only 9 prosecutions. These figures seem to show that so called ‘illegal schools’ are few and that current powers and legislation is sufficient to manage them; after all, an investigation indicates suspicion, which is not the same as guilt. Another figure is equally weak: ITV reported that 6,500 children are being educated in illegal schools, but said that this was a ‘conservative estimate’ — ‘estimate’ being the operative word.
As parents we are duty bound to ensure that our children receive a high-quality education and that any establishment we use is safe and secure. But we should be alarmed by the content of the ITV documentary — the journalists and state officials who were interviewed present both home and religious education as a malignant force in Britain. It is an attitude that diminishes the rights of families to educate their children as they see fit, and risks promoting prejudice and discrimination against vulnerable minority groups. It also overlooks serious problems in state schools relating to educational standards and provision, not to mention the prevalence of destructive left-wing ideology, which leads many parents to seek such alternative education for their children.
ParentPower Team
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