Unregistered yeshivot face government crackdown

V THE DAYS of unregulated yeshivot could be numbered after the Department for Education (DfE) announced plans to introduce new powers to inspect unregistered schools.

More than 1,000 boys from 13 to 16 in Hackney are estimated to be learning in yeshivot, which until now have successfully argued they are not schools according to the legal definition and therefore not subject to Ofsted inspections.

But the DfE has now launched a consultation on measures to close the loophole.

It says proposed new rules “would clearly require the registration (and regulation) of those settings which offer an intensive religious-only education (or other narrow education) to children of compulsory school age.”

The DfE has been under increasing pressure from Ofsted and local authorities such as Hackney, home to the country’s largest Strictly Orthodox Jewish population, to take steps to tackle unregistered institutions.

It says there has been a problem because the current definition of a school excludes institutions where only a single discipline is taught or which is “very narrow in nature”.

In some local authority areas, the DfE says, “hundreds of children (mostly boys, and mostly aged 13-16) attend such settings”.

Figures recently extracted from DfE data by the JC revealed that there were 1,735 girls in registered Jewish schools in Hackney aged from 11 to 15, compared with just 256 boys.

Another proposal from the DfE is to define full-time education as 18 or more hours’ weekly attendance at an institution during school hours, where the current legislation refers to 18 hours’ tuition. The change would cover time where children may be studying but not actually be in class.

The DfE said it was “aware of some settings that provide only religious instruction and that do operate in this way”.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has also pledged an extra £400,000 for Ofsted to clamp down on illegal schools, which he said “present a serious risk to children. They often do not offer the kind of balanced, informative curriculum all schools should, and can expose pupils to dangerous and extreme influences.”

From January 2016 to August 2019, 72 unregistered settings were stopped from operating illegally and a further 11 received warning notices.

Three proprietors of illegal settings have been successfully prosecuted, although none involving a Jewish institution.

As far as the JC is aware, one unregistered Strictly Orthodox school in Hackney has been ordered to close during this period.

The DfE also plans to make it harder for registered independent schools that fail to meet the required standards to appeal against sanctions.