Why is the Government clamping down on home education? - GP Taylor

The adage that parents know what is best for their children is being replaced with the state knowing better. It appears that Labour would like every child in the country to be moulded to a one size fits all system of education. Under Labour, freedom of choice is becoming a thing of the past as the nanny state dictates the minutiae of everyday life.

Aristotle said, “give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man”. It would now appear that that is soon to be the mantra of this ever more intrusive Labour government as they seek to coerce our children into their woke worldview.

In the words of Lady Hale, the former president of the supreme court, “in a totalitarian society, uniformity and conformity are valued. Hence, the totalitarian state tries to separate the child from her family and mould her to its own design”.

Recently, I have had several conversations with homeschooling parents who report that the local authorities who were once very happy with their style of education and results, are now increasingly saying that parents are failing.

Is this the result of the change of government? Have they been instructed to get tough on home educators?

There are many reasons why parents make the difficult decision to teach children at home. It is not an easy thing to do and requires a lot of dedication. Many children thrive in the home environment.

Having taught creative writing in lots of schools during author visits, I have seen first-hand how little time pupils have in quality learning sessions. Classroom disruption, the short lesson periods, coats-on, coats-off, room change, break, lunch, speed of the slowest and all the other distractions take a six-hour day down to only a couple of hours of useful learning. One statistic states that in the 190 days school year, children only get 315 hours of learning that equates to 1.6 hours per day.

In the home environment, the education day is often longer and one to one teaching is more intense at a level to challenge the child. There are few days off sick and productivity is higher.

Since so many parents now home educate there are lots of opportunities for socialisation and doing interesting work in larger groups.

Why then does the government appear to be wanting to clamp down on home education?

A worrying phrase that Labour seems to use when talking about homeschooling is “absence from school”.

How can home education be an absence from school when children are deregistered from the school system?

One commentator said that it’s crucial that Labour’s educational reforms address these issues. A significant clampdown is expected to ensure that all children receive a standard education and are safeguarded properly.

In other words, Labour has home education firmly in its sights and given the chance will make it a thing of the past. No longer will parents have the right to choose. Children will have to endure overcrowded, underfunded, state sausage factories. It is Labour’s intention to give each child a unique identification number to track them at all times with spot checks on home educating families.

Those families, who in the eyes of the state are failing to give a school type education will be taken to court and forced to send their children to school. I have to ask, what kind of a country are we living in?

Last week, I had a conversation with an educational welfare officer who told me that they could use the HMRC and even Border Force to track down what he called children “missing” from education.

Traditional schooling isn’t for every child and parents must have the right to be free to decide what type of education they want for their children. The government does not have the right to impose limitations on human freedom.

As the days pass, it is as if we lose more and more rights. Free speech, association, thought and education now appear to be under attack by a government obsessed with control. I have to ask if the time will ever come when people in this country will stand up and say that they have had enough.

Historically, Britain has fought to maintain freedom throughout the world, but in our own country, we appear to be happy to allow it to be taken from us by Starmer and his party of snake-oil salesmen.

Freedom to home educate without state interference is a right and one we should stand and fight for.

GP Taylor is a writer and broadcaster who lives in Yorkshire.