Yeshivot will be required to register school-age children with local authorities

The Board of Deputies has backed government plans which will mean that children of school age in yeshivot will have to be registered with the local authority.

Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, on Thursday announced plans to introduce registers for home-schooled children and other children taught outside regulated educational settings.

A spokesman for the Board said, “We support government plans for a home-schooling register to ensure all children who do not attend schools, still have access to a safe, broad, high-quality education.”

More than a 1,000 Strictly Orthodox teenage boys of school age in Hackney are estimated to be learning in yeshivot which currently fall outside the legal definition of a school.

Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, said, “The register of children not in school is vital in making sure that we are able to keep children safe and engaged, wherever they are learning. 

“The reason I’ve pressed for the roll-out of a national register is that it is all about ensuring children are safe, that they get the best education they can, helping to unlock doors to their future, and that those dedicated parents who choose to educate their children at home feel supported in doing so.”

In response earlier to a public consultation, Baroness Barran, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Schools System, indicated that the government would make it a legal requirement for parents to register their children if their children are not in mainstream education.

Also, proprietors of unregistered settings would also have to supply information for the register.

Pupils at part-time settings such as chedarim would not have to be registered.

READ MORE: Ofsted head calls for crackdown on unregistered yeshivot

Children's Commissioner urges regulation of yeshivot

Ofsted warns of risk to children taught in unregistered schools