Charedi campaigners against moves to introduce greater scrutiny of children in unregistered educational settings say they have handed over 10,000 responses from their community to a Department for Education consultation.
The government has previously proposed the compulsory registration by local authorities of children outside school settings, as part of the Schools Bill which was ditched at the end of last year.
But following the withdrawal of the Bill, it launched a consultation, which closed last week, over what to do about “children missing education”.
The government says it wants to “empower local authorities, schools and others to identify and support children missing education more effectively.”
Earlier this year, Conservative MP Flick Drummond tabled a private member’s Bill that would make it a duty for local councils to “maintain a register of children who are not at school."
Flick Drummond
Meon Valley Conservative MP Flick Drummond (Photo: UK Parliament)
But Charedi campaigner Rabbi Asher Gratt said: “The comprehensive and passionate participation from our community emphasises our resolve to safeguard our rights against the proposed Register Bill.
“The Bill poses a significant threat to the rights of parents opting for home education, replacing parental choice with a state-driven ideology mandating stringent regulations.
“This encroachment jeopardises not only parental rights but also the very essence of our faith, culture, and traditional lifestyle cherished by the Strictly Orthodox Jewish community.”
Rabbi Gratt was one of the organisers of a series of protests against the Schools Bill, which sought to regulate yeshivot and other unregistered settings.
Some 1,500 boys aged from 13 to 16 in Stamford Hill are thought to be learning in yeshivot which teach little or no secular education but are exempt from inspections by Ofsted because they do not meet the current legal definition of a school.
The Schools Bill was dropped primarily because of opposition to measures relating to the governance of academies. However, the government has said it will re-introduce legislation on registration and unregulated settings.
