Yeshivot may go part time to avoid registration, DfE says - The Jewish Chronicle

Yeshivot in Stamford Hill may switch to become part-time in order to avoid new measures intended to regulate them that are currently being discussed in Parliament, the government has suggested.

Under the current law, yeshivot are not considered to be schools because of their exclusively religious curriculum and are therefore exempt from registration with the Department for Education or from external inspection.

However, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is looking to amend the law so that institutions that provide full-time education would have register as independent schools.

But in its recently published assessment of the impact on equality, the DfE has said it anticipates that those responsible for yeshivot “may initially respond not by registering with the Secretary of State [for Education} but instead changing their provision to become part-time education providers”.

The DfE also thinks it unlikely that yeshivah students would move to a registered school because of “a known shortage” of school places considered suitable by the Charedi community.

“Instead, we think it most likely that, in the short-term, the education received by these

children will not change – it will continue to be a mix of ‘yeshiva study’ at an unregistered (but part-time) setting (or possibly several part-time settings) supplemented by elective home education,” the DfE said.

But it added that another new measure – for local authorities to keep registers of children taught at home or outside school – would enable councils to “undertake existing responsibilities to ensure education being received is suitable and children are safe”.

According to figures from Hackney Council, some 1,500 boys aged from 13 to 16 are currently being educated in yeshivot.

While the DfE anticipates objections to the Bill from the Charedi community, it said that the registration proposals were “justifiable” for two reasons.

Firstly, “the right of children to a safe education that suitably equips them for adult life should be protected and promoted by legislation.”

Secondly, it stated, “our measures do not prevent children receiving a religious education but mean that arrangements for a religious education should not prevent children receiving a suitable ‘secular’ education also”.

The DfE had not seen evidence which “suggests this measure is inherently incompatible

with traditional practices, or that is it impossible for children to receive an intensive religious education in addition to a ‘secular’ education in a registered setting and know of no other religious communities which operate this model.”

But the department acknowledged that even if they wanted to register as schools, yeshivot would find it hard to do so because of requirements for independent schools to teach LGBT awareness in order to comply with official standards.

Nevertheless, it believed that its policy would “bring wider societal benefits by encouraging more children to receive an education which promotes the development of well-rounded individuals”.

The DfE said it was important to proceed with its plans in order “to send a signal that we do not consider a full-time education provided by a setting offering a very narrow curriculum to be ‘suitable’ and appropriate for children’s needs.”

It believed that the signal would lead to changes in behaviour, including some institutions revising their curriculum to register.

“A longer-term impact of the signal the policy sends will be, we anticipate, to encourage future generations to develop sensitive approaches to overcome the obstacles which currently inhibit registration, bringing positive benefits to the children attending these settings, some of whom may share a relevant protected characteristic,” the DfE report said.

(Protected characteristics include same-sex orientation and gender reassignment).

The assessment also mentioned the potential effect of another part of the Bill on some existing Jewish schools – to require academies to teach the full national curriculum.

A small number of faith schools may experience challenges in teaching it, the DfE said. . “Some Orthodox Jewish academy schools… do not teach parts of the national curriculum, where it does not sit within their religious views.”

Some Muslim schools have previously raised concerns about the requirement to teach music on the basis of their religious values, it noted.

It said it would consider “how to support academies, including faith academies, to deliver their curriculum” as part of a wider implementation following a review of the national curriculum. (An interim report for the review has recently been published).