Scotland: Call for change on home schooling
BevK November 4th, 2006
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/73547.html
CAMPAIGNERS yesterday called for a change in the law to make it easier for Scottish parents to educate their children at home.
Currently, families who want to remove their children from state education have to seek consent from their local authority. However, in England and Wales, parents have the right to take their child out of class once they have informed the headteacher.
The Schoolhouse Home Education Association, a charity that represents home educators in Scotland, said it was time the law was changed.
The call came as theScottish Executive published a consultation on guidance issued two years ago to improve relationships between councils and home educators.
Friction between the two groups has mounted in recent years with some parents claiming local authorities were preventing them from exercising their rights.
Alison Preuss, a spokeswoman for Schoolhouse, said that, while there had been improvements following the publication of the guidance, there was still inconsistency among local authorities: “We often find parents who don’t fit the middle-class, university-educated stereotype run into problems. There is a great deal of snobbery about who should home educate.”
