Government criticised for inaction over unregulated yeshivot
Hackney Council says new laws are required to monitor unregistered educational institutions
THE GOVERNMENT has been criticised for failing to deal with unregistered yeshivot in a report published today by Hackney Council.
It says new laws should be considered “as a matter of urgency” to regulate unlicensed institutions, which teach an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 boys aged from 13 to 18 in the north London borough.
“There are few if any safeguards in place to ensure their safety and wellbeing or that they are being taught to an acceptable standard,” says the report after more than a year’s investigation by the council’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission.
There was no evidence of a curriculum adequately covering English, maths, science or broader humanities subjects, the commission found, adding:
“The fact that a section of the population are not receiving the education deemed to be needed to thrive and live independently cannot be parked indefinitely.”
It noted that 44 per cent of Jews over 16 in the borough had no qualifications — compared with 20 per cent for the Hackney population as a whole.
Whereas 48 per cent of Jews aged 16 to 64 were in employment in Hackney, that was 10 per cent lower than for the borough in general.
Despite the “woefully inadequate” legislation that applied to children taught outside schools, the government had shown a “lack of willingness to engage with the serious nature of the issue and its potential consequences”.
Although it is illegal to run an unregistered school for children under 16, the commission says the yeshivot are not classified as illegal because they argue their type of education falls outside the legal definition of a school.
It has called for new laws to monitor “out of school” educational settings; to give inspectors greater powers to enter them; and to require parents who home-school their children to register their names with the local authorities.
The council believes the number of unregistered yeshivot in Hackney is in the region of 29 to 35, although local Charedi sources contend it is lower. Some 13 unregistered institutions are thought to be linked to registered Orthodox independent schools.
(Overall, there are believed to be up
to 290 unregistered institutions in England.)
While representatives of the Charedi community said safeguarding of children was paramount, the commission said it had no received no assurances that adequate measures were in place.
The government’s position that no new legislation on out-of-school settings was on the cards for at least two years was “unacceptable”.
But while the commission wants the closure of legal loopholes, it says the only way to secure “consensual and lasting change” is to engage with the Charedi community. “Actions which are imposed will only further marginalise the community,” it says.
It has suggested creating a liaison body between community representatives such as yeshivah heads and the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Board, a local agency able to advise on issues such as checking the suitability of staff to work with children.
Although there had been limited common ground between the community and professional agencies, there was a desire to “work together”.
While the council should lobby for changes in the law, it should also collaborate with the Charedi community “to find ways to improve the well-being of the children without disrespecting their religious and cultural beliefs”.
But the council should send information about safeguarding and educational standards directly to parents, “rather than relying on intermediary bodies”.
Charedi representatives explained that one key reason for not registering yeshivot as independent schools was because of curriculum requirements, producing “irreconcilable differences between what was required to be taught in independent schools and what the Orthodox Jewish community would consider acceptable”.
After recent experience of Ofsted inspection of independent schools, the community felt “targeted” and parents would send their children abroad or educate them at home rather than compromise their convictions, the commissioners were warned.