Thousands of children are languishing in unregistered faith schools.
These schools prioritise fundamentalist religion over the education and welfare of children.
The scandal of unregistered schools must be addressed.
Some religious institutions operate schools which are not registered with the Department for Education, despite this being a legal requirement.
Schools are left unregistered to avoid regulations and inspections, so they can teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum without oversight. This severely limits children's future options, as children leave these schools with very poor literacy, no formal qualifications and no skills or experience for life in modern Britain.
The lack of scrutiny also presents major safeguarding concerns. Children have been taught in unsafe conditions and subjected to physical punishment in these schools. The curriculum may also teach extremist, regressive and discriminatory dogma.
In 2019, Ofsted estimated as many as 6,000 children were being educated in unregistered settings. But the number could be even higher. Approximately 86,300 children and young people were electively home educated nationally during the year 2019/20. There is little regulation of home education, so many of these children could in fact be attending an unregistered school.
Some unregistered schools exploit loopholes in the law to avoid registration and operate at the margins of the law as an "out of school educational setting". Although many out of school settings, including tuition centres and supplementary schools, provide an excellence service, a minority put children's welfare at risk.
We are working to end the harms caused by unregistered schools by campaigning for greater powers for Ofsted tackle these settings, the elimination of loopholes to force more schools to register, and improved regulation of elective home education.
Take action!
1. Suspect an unregistered school? Report it!
Unregistered schools are illegal and pose a serious threat to children's wellbeing. If you think you know of a possible unregistered school, please report it to the schools inspectorate Ofsted.
If you are aware of children in imminent danger, please call 999 and inform the police.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Ultra-Orthodox schools still use corporal punishment, say campaigners
Posted: Wed, 13 Jan 2016 16:28
A charity and support group for former Ultra-Orthodox Jews has warned the Government that corporal punishment is widely used in unregistered Orthodox schools.
In a submission on the regulation of "out-of-school education settings" which provide more than six hours of education per week, the GesherEU support network said that "corporal punishment is still in use in a number of the yeshivot and unregistered ultra-Orthodox primary schools." The group said up to 5,500 pupils could be studying in such settings.
One former pupil quoted in the consultation response reported that "hitting children was part of [the] routine; I personally was hit almost on a daily basis."
Proposals set out by the Government include plans to ensure that corporal punishment is not a practice adopted in out-of-school settings – a move welcomed by the National Secular Society.
In 2011 the NSS called on the Government to implement the recommendations of an independent report on physical punishment and extend the ban on physical punishment in schools and other children's settings to supplementary schools.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "Corporal punishment of children breaches their fundamental rights to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity. Its legality in out-of-school educational settings breaches their right to equal protection under the law. The lack of progress on this issue has given us cause for concern, especially in light of the well-documented evidence of abuse of children in out-of-school settings, including madrassas and yeshiva. Like GesherEU, we're keen to see children in such settings adequately safeguarded."
In addition to concerns about corporal punishment and poor hygiene standards at Orthodox schools, GesherEU made strong criticisms of the teaching at such institutions.
The group cited anonymous testimony from a former pupil of one Orthodox school, who said that "no secular studies were taught at all" during long school days from 8 until 6, and classes would "sit all day long and study religious texts."
GesherEU said that schools were failing their pupils: "In many cases they do not even teach them to speak English or simple arithmetic. They teach in Yiddish and Yiddish is spoken at home. Many young men leave with almost no ability to speak English. We have to support young men in particular that do not have one GCSE to their name, cannot get a job, and have no skills to manage their lives."
An emergency inspection of one strict Charedi school recently reported that the careers advice "focuses only on steering boys towards continuing with their academic studies in religious institutions."
The inspectorate was criticised by GesherEU for failing to challenge registered Charedi schools which "teach only in Yiddish, indoctrinate the young children and fail to teach the basics."
NSS backs plans for better safeguarding in supplementary schools
Posted: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:08
The National Secular Society has expressed broad support for Government plans to safeguard children and young people who attend "out-of-school education settings", including madrassas, with a system of registration and inspection.
The NSS, which first raised concerns about child welfare in supplementary school settings with the Government in 2011, described proposals to tackle the problem as "long overdue but very welcome."
The Government has been consulting on plans to enable action to be taken where out-of-school educational settings are failing to safeguard the welfare of children, which includes failing to protect them from the harm caused by extremism. The proposal will cover settings providing "intensive tuition, instruction or training" where children attend over six hours per week, including evenings and weekends.
The proposals outlined by the Department for Education will require supplementary schools to carry out background checks on staff and prohibit corporal punishment on out-of-school educational settings – a move long called for the by NSS.
The NSS's response highlighted reports of over 400 allegations of physical abuse in British madrassas between 2008 and 2011, revealed by freedom of information requests carried out by the BBC.
The response also welcomed plans to crack down on "undesirable teaching", stressing that "children in any educational setting should not be subjected to extremist teaching and indoctrination into hateful, intolerant and misogynistic ideologies."
However, the NSS warned that the regulation of out-of-school settings should be focused through the lens of safeguarding rather than security. It also reiterated the need to strengthen and empower civil society responses to extremism and sectarianism, and be mindful of genuine religious freedom concerns.
It is thought that just under a half of British mosques, from which madrassas are often run, are under the control of the ultra-conservative Deobandi movement, with a further 6% estimated to be influenced by Saudi Arabian Wahhabism. The NSS expressed hope that registration coupled with risk-based, rather than routine, inspections of madrassas would empower parents who had previously been worried about raising concerns with their mosque.
Despite recognising a particular problem with some Islamic out-of-school settings, the NSS response noted that other faith-based settings have "the clear potential to incubate divisions and indoctrinate children with views that run counter to British values rooted in human rights."
The Northern Council of Mosques, an organisation which represents 400 mosques, has said the plan "unduly encroaches on the legitimate right of faith providers to teach their children their faith" and that they "unequivocally" reject the proposals to register madrassas. Christian pressure groups have also warned that plans pose "a huge challenge to Christian freedoms".
The NSS restated its commitment to religious freedom in the consultation, but Stephen Evans, the National Secular Society's campaigns manager, rejected the "alarmist" and "vastly overblown" claims from some religious groups that the proposals amounted to an "attack on religious freedom."
In its consultation response the NSS argued: "The state has a duty to protect and uphold children's rights - to ensure that each and every child is safeguarded from harm and gets the best possible start in life. It should fulfil its duty equally for all children and young people, regardless of their religious background."
Mr Evans added: "Out-of-school educational settings, including religious supplementary schools, are a poorly regulated area and there is clear evidence of need for a new system of registration, regulation and inspection to ensure that children in such settings are safeguarded.
"The teaching of intolerance and violence in out-of-school educational settings has the clear potential to cause irreparable damage to the minds of young people and to wider society. It's right that the Government seeks to address this.
"Religious freedom is not absolute and the Government's willingness to balance parental rights and religious freedom against children's' and young people's independent rights – as well as wider societal interests – should be welcomed."
The Government has also insisted that the proposals are "not about regulating religion or infringing people's freedom to follow a particular faith or hold particular beliefs."
"Through this proposal, we are seeking to ensure that those who work in positions of trust and influence with children and young people respect those with different faiths and beliefs and do not, in expressing their individual beliefs, promote intolerance against others," it stated.
In his speech to the 2015 Conservative Party conference, Prime Minister David Cameron told delegates: "If an institution is teaching children intensively, then whatever its religion, we will, like any other school, make it register so it can be inspected."
The National Secular Society's full response to the consultation can be read in full here.
