So I am going to copy and paste, what to me, sums this whole ridiculousness situation up!
This is from the blog Wild Oak Academy
In response to your suggestion for home educated children to be registered with the local authority and to be monitored at least termly…
If you suggest all home educated children should be monitored at least termly, I would presume that you would also be suggesting they have access to the same funding as school children? Free meals, free milk, free fruit and vegetables and free educational resources and software as well as educational funding, grants, pupil premiums? After all, this is all in the best interest of the child isn’t it? That is the only reason you want them monitored right? No other agenda. Please do be advised that thousands of home educated families have refrained from petitioning for these things for the sake of maintaining freedom of education and privacy and as they have agreed to take on the full responsibilities of educating their own children, however, should the government return this responsibility to themselves, by force through monitoring, we would have our own sets of demands to ensure we match these impositions.
Where will the funding for monitoring thousands of home ed families come from? I presume you’ll put at least an equal amount of extra funding into the school system that failed them? Fix what is broken rather than what is not. Look at correcting the cause before treating the symptoms.
I also assume you’ll want extra monitoring of the schools that failed? Checking on the thousands of children that go to school and are bullying other children to the point they can’t take being in school anymore? The teachers who can’t handle children with additional needs and off roll them?
Can you explain how you will justify breaching our basic human rights under article 3 (t the right to be free from degradation, article 6 (the right to a fair trial which includes innocent until proven guilty), article 8 (the right to enjoyment of private life and family life) article 9 (the right to freedom of religion and belief which includes philosophical beliefs) and article 14 (freedom from discrimination)
Can you explain how the police need a search warrant signed by the court if they wish to enter a known criminals home but thousands of law abiding families will be forced to comply to intrusive unwanted visits from strangers?
Your proposals which you have put forth based on false evidence and misinterpretations of the available data, could not be implemented without a massive breach of our human rights and those of our children.
Who will be monitoring and what will their qualifications be in order to know and understand each child's learning styles, needs and subjects? If my child is gifted and talented and working to a level 4 or equivalent you better make sure that your person is qualified to assess this level of work and in the subjects my child is studying. If my child has additional needs, you must ensure your person understands their specific needs and if my child has chosen to learn a trade as oppose to academic subjects, be sure your person knows all about that trade to ensure their ability to make assessments.
As for invisible children, every child that has been deregistered from school is known to their local authority and has had contact from them, every child signed up to an illegal school is known and is not under the umbrella of home education and those who are genuinely off grid, travelling or world schooling would be impossible to locate for monitoring. So in reality, who will you actually be monitoring? Those guilty of abuse or neglect would easily be able to avoid monitoring by going off grid, no fixed abode, emigrating. If they took such drastic measures as to remove their children from school to avoid notice, they won’t be adhering to your plans.
