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Proposed legal controls for the registration of homeschooled children, how they are monitored while at home, and whether they should be charged for sitting exams within States schools will be challenged in the Assembly.
The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture will bring reforms to the Education Law to the States for approval next week. The current Law, widely regarded as not fit for purpose, is based on UK legislation from the 1940s and was introduced in the 1970s.
Homeschooling was not captured within the Law, and so ESC has proposed legally recognising it as a legitimate choice for learners, but also introducing minimum standards of education to ensure parity.
A record of all children of compulsory school age has been suggested to ensure no child misses out on education. Those educated at home would also be charged for using public facilities when taking exams through means-testing.
But Deputies Yvonne Burford and Victoria Oliver hope to win the support of politicians next week to relax some of the proposals after submitting three amendments to the overall reforms.
They want homeschooled children to not have to be registered on an island school roll and be automatically placed onto a homeschooling roll without the permission of Education officials.
They hope for it to capture any parent and carer of a child who is “not in receipt of an intervention from a professional agency” in both Guernsey and Alderney.
Equity for homeschoolers when it comes to using facilities for exams should be adopted instead of means-testing for household contributions, they added.
Deputies Burford and Oliver also want to see the States monitoring of homeschooled children discussed with the parents or carers rather than being imposed onto them centrally.
Watch: A States video outlining some of the wider changes to the Law.
ESC is also proposing introducing universal free pre-school education for three- and four-year-olds for 15-hours per week, and legal physical activity requirements for students.
A board of governors would also be introduced to decentralise the management of public schools to challenge and support headteachers, but some elements would remain with Education such as IT and HR.
Currently, the political committee has responsibility for governing all schools and other States education providers.
Safeguarding provisions would be laid out too, as well as if and when school meals should be provided.
The next States meeting kicks off on Wednesday 21 June.
Education looks to release its grip on schools
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