Lord Storey said, “My Bill would require home educators to register with their local authority — it would be offence not to do so.”
His proposals would also cover students of school age at yeshivot.
But Charedi opponents of such measures believe that this would be the first step to regulating the yeshivot, forcing them to comply with educational directives for schools and to introduce secular subjects.
The last government had backed a Private Member’s Bill for a similar register introduced by the then Conservative MP Flick Drummond — but it ran out of parliamentary time before the election.
However, the new Labour government has indicated its own support for a register.
A Department for Education spokesman said this week: “Our forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill will legislate to create registers of children not in school, so no child falls through the cracks. We will work with interested parties across the House on the measures as the Bill progresses.”
