From a paragraph approximately 2/3rds of the way through this transcript, Penny Jones stated:
"the concern of the state, is that, because we’ve got ECHR, the state does have a responsibility to make sure that the child – every child receives a suitable education, that’s inescapeable. And, in theory, it would be possible for a home educated child, at some point in the future, to turn round to the state and say ‘look you didn’t secure my interests, I was getting a terrible education, you were aware I was getting a terrible education, why didn’t you do something about it?’ so it’s rather a different situation than you envisage."
It looks as if the state, through its tortuous interpretation of the ECHR's Protocol 1, Article 2 - whereby a negative right is interpreted as being an automatic responsibility of the state to ensure that a positive right is achieved, is walking itself into a situation whereby it will be repeatedly subjected to litigious action by angry children who did not receive a suitable education. Badman's recommendations make it clear that a suitable education is not just about provision, it is also about attainment. Given that tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of schooled children do not attain a "suitable" education by anyone's standards, local authorities will be bankrupted, pdq.
Fiona Nicholson commented:
"The Badman proposals move the responsibility from the parent to the state. The scenario outlined by Penny will become reality under Badman. The Department needs to take this back to its legal advisors as a matter of urgency."
I think she's right.
It's crazy isn't it? Can Penny Jones be SO clueless that she can't see what she's suggesting? I mean, she can't SERIOUSLY believe that it's not possible, common even, for a child at school to get a "terrible education" and be pissed off about it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I'll see them in court next year. I have ed psych reports to back me up on what the kids need and had to have for a suitable education, which the LA refused to provide, so I'll start with loss of earnings, continue with suing for the education allowance given to schools, and see where we go from there.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost looking forward to it!
I'll be off to court too.
ReplyDeleteThey can pay for watching my daughter being badly bullied for four years and doing nothing.
They'll not have money to hire a cat afterwards.
Outraged of Swindon
It's getting sillier by the day!
ReplyDeleteSIGH......blimey....wha.....I just stare in utter dumbfoundedness at the utter lunacy I see written before my eyes....I just...........has someone transported me to another dimension without telling me........it seems sense is gone.Reason lost in the ether somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAre they really so insane to think a home educated child is going to sue the State if they don't get a good education?
ReplyDeleteYou would think they'd be worried about the kids leaving state schools who can't read. Oh--actually-if they can't read, they wouldn't know how to start the paperwork--so that's probably why they aren't worried.
Maybe we should start a petition to have all children who've left school over the past 10 years without any qualifications reimbursed for their loss of potential earnings due to their lack of a decent education!
Good idea, Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteShould keep Balls in the air long enough to leave us alone!
Outraged
This is indeed, total insanity. If Penny Jone thinks that Home Educated children are going to turn around and accuse her of failing them, what the HELL does she think the 25,000 children who left school this august without qualifications are going to do? And what about the millions of barely literate people that are flooding out of the state schools? Are they going to sue the government because they cannot read and do simple math, or because they fell into crime, or have no saleable skills?
ReplyDeletePenny simply has not thought this out properly, like all the other scum at the DCSF, they know how to speak as if they are using logic, but in fact all they know how to do is parrot the language of thinking, without engaging in any real thought at all.
They are a most despicable bunch, every single one of them.
Intellectual midget engages with unsullied intellects, a sad massacre.
ReplyDeleteReading it made me feel a bit sorry for poor ol'Penny Jones. There she was meeting a bunch of kids receiving 'unsuitable education' and probably 'missing' so she obviously wasn't expecting much and then...hehehehe. Home ed youngsters with...NOOOOOO - a mind of their own!!!
ReplyDeleteI very much support the rights of parents to direct their children's educations. We see your situation as the canary in the coal mine and publish warnings in our newsletters here in the US. Does anyone know where I can get the triangle window cling of the children "breaking out of the mold" of conventional education?
ReplyDeleteI very much support the rights of parents to direct their children's educations. We see your situation as the canary in the coal mine and publish warnings in our newsletters here in the US. Does anyone know where I can get the triangle window cling of the children "breaking out of the mold" of conventional education?
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, as long as parents of home educated students are threatened, teachers who taught the failed students in government schools should also be docked pay, forced to undergo re-training, intensively-supervised probationary periods, and then fired if their students do not ALL pass in a very short time. Fair?
In the US, teacher's unions fought teacher competency testing for years. When it was finally instituted, astounding numbers of teachers re-took the exams (which were very basic) over and over and over without being able to pass them! Surveys on university campuses reveal that education majors also have the lowest GPAs! Compare this to studies that demonstrate homeschooled kids consistently out-perform classroom students.
What this shows is that the laws are about control not concern for the children.
Aardvark-(feels funny writing that!)--We have all been shouting that it's about the control--we haven't been fooled by their false concern for children. (I'm from NJ)
ReplyDeleteOutraged--maybe if this goes any further--we need to get that petition going!