This is good news for Welsh homeschoolers. After their continued feedback, hopefully the homeschool registration prospect will completely disappear.
Home school register on hold after parents’ backlash By Daniel Davies BBC
Education Minister Leighton Andrews has now removed the idea from forthcoming legislation and civil servants are analysing the responses to a consultation on a draft bill which would have changed the law.
Mike Fortune-Wood (sharing his wisdom here in NewsComm on a different UK homeschooling subject) is quoted in the BBC Wales article:
He [Fortune-Wood] said local council officials did not have the expertise to decide whether children were being taught properly.
You’ve got to remember a lot of these families are home educators because of serious problems at school”
“It (the bill) effectively means the state is responsible for educating the children and parents have to seek permission for what otherwise would have been their responsibility.”
Here is more background information about the now delayed proposal:
Home schooling: Parents in Wales must register children September 3, 2012 BBC Wales
Last year 986 children of compulsory school age were known to have been taught at home.
But it is difficult to compile accurate figures because parents are not currently required to register home-schooled children with their local authority, unless the child is registered at a special school.
The authorities’ concern for accurate home education statistics is befuddling. Unless, we consider the real fear might be the lack of control. Another excerpt from the 2012 BBC article:
Education Minister Leighton Andrews said the existing laws had shortcomings.
Without a requirement for parents to notify councils “it is very difficult for local authorities to carry out their duties to ensure that children are receiving a suitable education,” he said.
Possibly, over the months, Andrews and others considered parents wanting the best for their beloved children might rule out the notion that local authorities need to follow up on private education.