Charedi campaigners mobilise against registration of children outside school

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."

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.