The Government has just announced a consultation about homeschooling. The consultation is considering whether homeschooled children should be registered and the quality of their education monitored. There was a 20% increase in children educated at home from Jan '16 to Oct '17. Some of the issues about radicalisation include concerns about children moved out of the school system. There is also a concern about excluded children being off-rolled and moved into "home education".

Parents homeschool for a variety of reasons - some with excellent intentions about offering a more varied curriculum. Other parents homeschool when they fall out with their children's schools or want to avoid safeguarding measures eg. Kyra Ishaq, whose mother refused access to visitors and Kyra eventually starved to death. Children who are homeschooled certainly miss the regular monitoring that school provides. Although the Local Authority offers a visit, at the moment they have no right of entry (unless the child is at risk) or duty to monitor quality of education.

Across the world, and even within Europe, there are varying practices around this. In Iceland, it is only legal to homeschool your child if you are a qualified teacher. In Finland, the homeschool child is subject to a written and oral annual exam. In France, there are mandatory inspections and in Germany it is only legal to homeschool if it would cause undue hardship for the child to attend school.

The questions that now need looking at in the UK are -

Is it the child's choice or the parents?
Is it a way of avoiding safeguarding concerns and if so, how can the child still be protected effectively?
How can quality of education be assured when it takes place at home?
How can the child's social interaction needs be met?
In today's complex society, can home schooling by a non-teacher give the child sufficient skills and knowledge?