The select committee's conclusions and recommendations

There seems to be a general impression that the select committee has given Graham Badman one in the eye with its conclusions, but I can't really see it myself. Badman suggested compulsory registration, and this is taken up in the Children, Schools and Families Bill. The select committee recommends that it be voluntary.......for two years. If all the home educators have not registered by then, it should become compulsory! Since registration is currently voluntary and a lot of parents don't register, I didn't myself, then we know perfectly well that after two years many will still not have done so. In effect, the select committee is also saying that registration should be compulsory.

The rest of the select committee's recommendations are like that. They are against home visits, but they were never mentioned anyway in the Children, Schools and Families Bill. They say that responsibility for revoking registration should not rest with local authority home education advisors, but whoever suggested for a moment that it should? They are in favour of the statement of educational approach and most of the other main planks of the Badman Report.

Actually, they go a little further than even Badman did in some respects. For instance in Para. 120, they say; "We note that in the case of school education the quality of teaching is thought to be the key factor in pupil's learning and attainment. In which case, the same must apply to parents and others who are responsible for the education of home educated children." Uh Oh, sounds like they have not entirely understood autonomous education here!

Still, as others have observed, this will all be ignored anyway when the Children, Schools and Families Bill receives its second reading in January.