SUBMISSION ON EDUCATION AND TRAINING REFORM REGULATIONS 2017
I am writing in regards to the home education section of the proposed regulations. Apologies for any typos in this submission as it was completed at the last minute!
Our family is homeschooling for the first time. Our daughter is five and we have a three year old and another baby on the way. At this stage our intention is homeschool all three of them. Our reasons for homeschooling are varied, but are not based on religious reasons. Our primary belief is that we can provide as good or better education to our children in a home environment.
As a new home educator, I have several concerns with the proposed regulations as follows.
Children remaining in school awaiting registration approval
I find this regulation very concerning because it restricts a parent’s right to remove their child from a potentially dangerous situation. For example, if my child is in school and being bullied I may need to remove them from the school immediately. Under the proposed regulations it would appear that I would be at the mercy of the authorities (be it the VRQA or school principle) and they would decide if I can remove my child or not. This does not make sense as a school principal has a vested interest in their school and therefore also bias. They may not be able to admit that the bullying as actually occurring.
Learning Plans
As we are homeshooling for the fist time we aren’t really sure exactly how we will proceed. So far we are roughly following an online curriculum which we have purchased. However this is changing as we go. I do not believe that it is realistic to expect parents to provide full learning plans for an entire year up front; these are things that I would expect to evolve over time and having to restrict our learning to rigid plans would not benefit our childrens’ education.
Random Reviews
My biggest concerns around these reviews are that there is very little detail in the proposed regulations. This is probably the most obvious when it comes to random reviews. It is very unclear how and when and how often this will occur. I also do not believe that they are necessary.
Suggested Solutions
I recommend that none of the proposed changes to the regulation be approved as I do not believe that they will benefit the learning outcomes of the children or families. I wish I had more time to elaborate on this but mistakenly thought this submission was due at midnight 28thFeb not 5PM!
Thank you for your time.
I would like a response to this submission. In particular I would like to know how you believe these changed will help our children.
Regards,