HED00109

Written evidence submitted by Mr. Michael Peach

Home Education Consultation:   Evidence of Michael Peach.

1              I am writing this as a concerned grand-parent of children who are being educated in the State system and a Father of four children who have long left such State education.

2              My evidence is very brief. I am opposed to the State introducing registration in relation to ‘Home-schooling’ as it is called. This is because it breaches the fundamental principle that parents have ultimate authority in the matter of the education of their children. This is the current legal framework too – (S7 of the Education Act 1996)

3              If registration is introduced for home-schoolers something else will surely follow e.g. inspection and monitoring and interference from the State. This may seem benign at first, but it will surely lead to an understanding that it is the State which decides whether children are having a ‘proper’ education and the next step will be cohersion of poarents either to teach something they do not believe their children should receive, or the children being forced into the State system against the will of the parencts.

4              Of course there are risks with this ancient and revered principle, but the State already has power to deal with neglect and abuse of children, so it is wrong to impose any new registration requirement or inspection regime on home-schooling parents.

5              It seems likely that the Committee may also be in danger of disdirecting themselves because issues surrounding unregistered/illegal schools may be clouding this one central issue of the right of parents to decide on the education of their children.

5              As a Christian I am concerned too that the current ‘world-view’ of much of the State ‘actors’ seems to be that religion is a private matter only, and that the only credible, respectable and ‘right’ views that pupils should hold are those which include a purely materialistic, evolutionist, ‘woke’ explanation of the world and the universe. The teaching of such values would almost certainly figure highly in any State assessment of the quality of home education, but should not do so. This is one good reason to maintain the principle of parents being the ultimate deciders of what children should be taught.

6              The overwhelming majority of Christian parents do send their children to State schools – my wife and I did with our four – but that majority practice must not morph into a requirement that parents must reigster with or be inspected by the State if their children are taught at home. Moreover, the costs of this huge administrative burden on Local Authorities should be sufficient to caution against imposing it.

Dated: 28th October 2020.

Michael Peach

October 2020