Last week, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (more commonly known as Ofsted) in the United Kingdom found that some 6,000 children were being taught in unregulated settings, some in ‘quite appalling’ conditions with unqualified staff and unsafe accommodation.
The issues highlighted were threefold. First, access to these alternative schools by authorities was difficult, with time spent gaining entry being used by these schools to hide their activities. Second, unregistered schools teach for under 18 hours – some for only 17 hours and 50 minutes – to avoid being registered as a school. Third, one in five of the places under investigation had links to religious centers, among these the most common was a Muslim setting. The fact that parents were allowed free places at local state schools did not stop them from sending their children to these ‘alternative’ centers, and often paying fees to do so.
Read the full article in Forbes