New Department of Education guidelines for parents who educate their children at home have been criticised by the Home Education Network.
The network represents 100 families, about half of those who educate their children at home instead of school. Parents in the group said yesterday the guidelines were biased against home educators as they did not set the same standards for school teachers.
The guidelines have provided for new educational welfare Officers who would assess the standard of home education and suggest improvements if necessary.
Ms Barbara Boland, spokeswoman for the Home Education Network, pointed to the penalties that home educators faced if they did not provide what the Department of Education described as an "adequate education".
"Parents could be fined up to £500 or face a month in prison. Yet if a child is not getting a proper education at school, school teachers don't face the same penalties. We've never heard of teachers being fined or imprisoned or even sacked for not providing an adequate education," she said.
Ms Boland said home educators had no problem with minimum standards of education, but wanted school teachers to face the same scrutiny. "Why should we be fully answerable to the Department of Education, which does not provide us with a page or a pen, while its own paid teachers are not?" she asked.
"The Department says that if a child is not getting an adequate education at home, then they should be sent to school, but what happens if a child is not getting an adequate education at school? The Department won't recommend that the child should be sent home to be educated. "How could fining a parent £500 or imprisoning them for a month be in the interests of the child?" Ms Boland asked.
The Home Education Network has said that these new education welfare officers must truly understand the concept of home schooling. "School truancy officers or school inspectors are not the people for this job," Ms Boland said.
The Department of Education yesterday defended the new guidelines and denied that they were biased against home educators.
A spokesman for the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said school teachers were also expected to conform to very detailed standards laid down under the Education Act (1998). He said if parents chose to educate their children at home, the Department had to ensure they were receiving an adequate education.
"Our only concern is that children receive the minimum standard of education. That is why these guidelines were introduced," the spokesman said.
