- Matthew Coffey urged Government to crackdown on parents pulling children out
- He believes legal loophole could inadvertently be helping to feed ‘illegal schools’
- Data shows 30,000 children in England were being educated at home in 2014-15
Extremist groups are encouraging parents to take their children out of school and enrol them in illegal schools, an Ofsted chief has said.
Matthew Coffey, the chief operating officer at the regulator, has urged the Government to crackdown on the number of parents pulling their children out of school in an effort to stem the flow of children entering into ‘illegal schools’.
Although parents are not required to inform local authorities that they intend to home-school their children, Mr Coffey believes that a legal loophole could inadvertently be helping to ‘feed’ unregulated schools.
Extremist groups are encouraging parents to take their children out of school and enrol them in illegal schools, an Ofsted chief has said
‘The intelligence that we have found says there is a bit of a loophole and people are using it,’ Mr Coffey told The Daily Telegraph.
‘The Government needs to have a long, serious, hard look at how it can close that loophole whilst maintaining everyone’s right to educate children.
The number of children listed as being home-schooled has been on the rise in recent years.
Data released through freedom of information requests found that 30,000 children in England were being educated at home in 2014-15.
Mr Coffey said parents were taking children out of school and sending them to illegal schools, while masquerading under the home-schooling banner.
Numerous organisations offer parents advice on how to home-school a child under Islamic teachings.
According to the newspaper, one website has a section that explains to parents how to take their children out of school without alerting the authorities to any suspicions.
‘Elective home education is being used as a way of taking children out of mainstream education and putting them into to these unregistered settings,’ Mr Coffey added.
A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘Parents have a right to teach their children at home if they choose but all children must still get a safe and suitable education.’