6:47pm Friday 4th December 2009
PARENTS in Bexley have handed over a petition to one of the borough’s MPs urging Parliament to reject the findings of a report on home schooling.
Old Bexley and Sidcup MP Derek Conway received the petition from brother and sister Constance and Alexander Turnbull aged 17 and 19, of Hadlow Road, Sidcup, who were home schooled.
The Bradman Report suggested home educators should be more closely monitored, with rules including a compulsory annual registration scheme and a right of access to people’s homes for local authority officials.
The petition claims the report was rushed and has major failings.
It says further legislation proposals should be withdrawn and the current guidelines properly enforced.
The petition is part of a nationwide campaign organised by parents’ action groups.
Mr Conway said: “If Constance and Alexander Turnbull are examples of home tuition then I defy any petty bureaucrat to demonstrate the folly of teaching a child at home, if the parental capacity exists.”
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