Councils 'stop children from being taught at home'

Published on Friday 25 March 2005 01:25

COUNCILS were last night accused of deliberately blocking attempts by parents to remove their children from school so they can be taught at home.

Guidelines setting out how local authorities should deal with home education requests were published by the Executive a year ago. The measures were designed to make it easier for parents to teach their children at home if they wanted to.

However, campaigners claimed yesterday that although some councils are following the guidelines, many are still blocking parents’ requests unnecessarily.

Alison Preuss, spokeswoman for the home schooling charity Schoolhouse, said they had been contacted by families unhappy with the treatment they received from their local council.

She said: "After the struggle we had to get this guidance issued, it is extremely disappointing still to be coming across instances of blatant misinformation being peddled by public authorities.

"It is all the more depressing when children are suffering bullying and other problems in the school system and councils are effectively blocking their removal by failing to adhere to statutory guidance."

Rev Ewan Aitken, education spokesman for the local authority group COSLA, denied councils were being deliberately obstructive and insisted they had the interests of the children involved at heart.

"I would like to see evidence to support these claims," he said. "Councils know the regulations and follow them, but parents need to be aware of the expectations on them to maintain educational standards."