Last week the BBC reported on ‘illegal schools’: in other words, private tuition centres which, despite teaching for more than 20 hours a week, were not registered with Ofsted.
Current rules mean that if a tuition centre is teaching for more than 20 hours a week, it must register with Ofsted. Although centres teaching for fewer hours do not need to register, the government is now consulting on plans to regulate centres which teach for more than 6 to 8 hours a week. Apparently, ‘the government consultation on further regulation runs until mid-January’, so there’s little time left for anyone who objects to make their views known.
Rather ominously, according to the BBC, ‘It’s clear Sir Michael Wilshaw would prefer that all part-time tuition centres, flexi-schools and education centres are forced to close and apply for registration from scratch.’
Such a move would obviously impact on home education, and encroach on the basic rights that parents have to decide how to educate their children.
I think reporters have misunderstood and confused two different things especially in that particular BBC article. Till Ofsted forced their hand by publicising flagrant breaches of the law, the Government was reluctant to prosecute and let illegal schools carry on operating. There are SEPARATE proposals for light touch registration of part-time settings, which will almost certainly be a bit less light once they’ve finished but nothing on the scale of full time independent school registration. The establishments Ofsted wants closing down are the illegal full time schools.