Le "modèle" anglo-saxon,  libéral  ... et blairo-socialiste...

En Grande Bretagne, modèle, patrie, phare, Paradise, Eden, leader du home schooling en Europe,
après de multiples constats d'enfants livrés à eux-mêmes, ou aux fantaisies des parents, sous couvert de home schooling, (on estime à un sur quatre la proportion de ces enfants victimes de "négligences", allant de l'analphabétisme à la délinquance en passant par les coups...)
le ministère de l'éducation "envisage" ... depuis un certain temps, de rendre obligatoires la déclaration, voire l'autorisation.
... Et des contrôles ("sociaux" et "scolaires") plus réguliers, plus sérieux.
On commence aussi, enfin, à poser la question qui fâche : le Droit ... de quoi ? de qui ?
"All the rights are in favour of the parent. But who is going to stand up for the rights of the child?"
The circumstances of a significant proportion of home-schooled children were "a real cause for concern".
 

ÉCOLES ANGLAISES :
Discipline, rigueur et esprit compétitif sont les maîtres mots de la mutation mise en œuvre par le gouvernement travailliste..

   Royaume-Uni : L’uniforme discriminatoire
En imposant un fournisseur unique pour l’achat de l’uniforme, les écoles pratiquent une discrimination à l’encontre des élèves pauvres. 

  Directeur d'école en Grande Bretagne :
« Le métier a beaucoup évolué. Aujourd’hui, on est beaucoup plus responsable,
on a plus de pression, on nous demande plus de résultats. »

  Deux fois plus d’enseignants sont partis en retraite anticipée au cours des sept dernières années. 

  35% des élèves de 11 ans ne savent pas lire.

  Un ado sur cinq ne peut situer son pays sur une carte.

  Ecoles publiques fermées aux pauvres.  Un rapport émis par ConfEd, (une association qui représente les dirigeants du secteur de l’éducation locale) dénonce le manque d’intégrité des processus d’admission dans certaines écoles publiques. Des réunions de "sélection" d’élèves sont organisées, durant lesquelles ne sont admis que les enfants "gentils, brillants et riches".  Ainsi, 70 000 parents n’ont pas pu inscrire cette année leurs enfants dans l’école de leur choix. En écartant les élèves issus de milieux pauvres, ces établissements "hors la loi" espèrent rehausser leur taux de réussite aux examens. 

   Selon l'OCDE, les écoles privées britanniques ont les meilleurs résultats au monde : FAUX !

  ... & Moins de pauvres dans les écoles primaires catholiques.

  Les écoles anglaises pourront être gérées par des "trusts".

  L’école britannique livrée au patronat.  En mars 2000, le Conseil européen de Lisbonne avait fixé comme principal objectif à la politique de l’Union en matière d’éducation de produire un capital humain rentable au service de la compétitivité économique. 

  Le créationnisme aux examens.

   "BAGUE DE VIRGINITE" : Une adolescente anglaise, fille d'un pasteur évangélique, perd son procès en Haute Cour.

  Grande-Bretagne : l'athéisme (bientôt ?) au programme scolaire

  Grande-Bretagne :Les sponsors au secours de l'école

  Empreintes digitales pour les enfants d'une école de Londres. Le Royaume-Uni réfléchit à la mise en place d’une loi pour la création d’un fichier national des enfants de moins de douze ans.

Naître et grandir pauvre en Grande-Bretagne  est encore plus pénalisant que dans d’autres pays développés.

  Un demi-million de «sans-logement». A Londres, un enfant sur deux sous le seuil de pauvreté.

  Un demi-million d'enfants britanniques travaillent "illégalement".

  «tolérance zéro» et conditions de détention intolérables. Plus de dix mille jeunes délinquants britanniques sont emprisonnés.  «Le bilan du Royaume-Uni en terme d'emprisonnement des enfants est l'un des pires qui se puisse trouver en Europe.»

  Les frais très élevés d’inscription universitaire dissuadent les étudiants issus de familles modestes de s’inscrire en fac.

  De plus en plus d’étudiantes se prostituent ou travaillent dans l’industrie du sexe pour payer les frais d’inscription de leur université.

  Plus de 350 000 Britanniques ont quitté leur île en 2005 pour jouir d'une vie meilleure
Les jeunes Britanniques se voient vivre ailleurs.  Difficulté d' acquérir un logement, hausse de la fiscalité et indigence des services publics, en particulier les transports et le système de soins.

M. Ernest-Antoine Sellière, alors président du patronat français :« Je suis un socialiste britannique »

  Londres, paradis des milliardaires.

  Selon des rapports de l’ONU et de la Banque mondiale :  « Au Royaume-Uni, les inégalités entre riches et pauvres sont les plus importantes du monde occidental, comparables à celles qui existent au Nigeria, et plus profondes que celles que l’on trouve, par exemple, à la Jamaïque, au Sri Lanka ou en Ethiopie .»

  Grande Bretagne :  premier pays où chaque déplacement de véhicule sera enregistré.

  Les Britanniques inventent l'ultrason antijeunes.

   De plus en plus de mineurs hospitalisés pour des problèmes d'alcool. Le nombre de mineurs hospitalisés en Angleterre pour avoir trop bu a augmenté de 20% en un an.

Beuark.
Ségolène Royal rend hommage à la politique de Tony Blair.

A compter du 12 octobre, tous ceux qui sont amenés à s'occuper "de manière fréquente (au moins une fois par mois) ou intensive (trois fois par mois)" d'enfants en Angleterre, au Pays de Galles et en Irlande du Nord devront s'inscrire auprès de l'ISA. Laquelle vérifiera qu'ils n'ont pas, dans une vie précédente, été suspectés de pédophilie ou de violence. Auquel cas ils devront se retirer.

Les enseignants, les infirmières, les médecins, les assistantes maternelles, les proviseurs ou encore les dentistes sont concernés au premier chef. Mais la loi de 2006, qui a créé ce dispositif, va bien au-delà. Un adulte qui accompagne régulièrement des sorties de scouts, par exemple, devra lui aussi être accrédité. Tout comme les familles qui accueillent des enfants étrangers désireux de perfectionner leur anglais.

Ceux qui oublieront de s'inscrire auprès de l'ISA encourent une amende de 5 000 livres. Tout comme leurs employeurs, qui seront passibles d'une peine de prison s'ils font travailler une personne que l'ISA a jugée inapte. ""La base de données anti-pédophiles", comme l'appelle le Daily Telegraph, qui mène une violente campagne contre son entrée en vigueur, devrait in fine ficher 11,3 millions de personnes, soit un adulte sur quatre. Jusqu'ici, le gouvernement recensait exclusivement les professionnels de l'enfance, mais pas de manière exhaustive et avec une enquête à leur sujet plus limitée que ce qui est désormais prévu. Il a ainsi déjà collecté plus de 5 millions de noms.

Lors de son adoption à Westminster en 2006, la loi était apparue consensuelle. Les rares débats qu'elle avait suscités concernaient les 64 livres que doivent verser les fichés de l'ISA au titre des frais d'enquête qu'ils occasionnent. Il a été décidé que les bénévoles en seraient exonérés. Pour le reste, il n'y avait pas eu de polémique. Il a fallu attendre que l'ISA précise, il y a quelques jours, les modalités de sa mission pour que les critiques se fassent entendre.

Des écrivains pour enfants, comme Philip Pullman et Anne Fine, se sont offusqué des "exigences insultantes" de l'ISA et ont menacé de ne plus se rendre dans les écoles. Le travailliste Barry Sheerman, qui préside la commission à l'enfance et aux familles de la Chambre des communes, a condamné la manière dont la loi était mise en oeuvre et a appelé le gouvernement "à se saisir du dossier".

"Nous allons voir les clubs et les centres de loisirs pour enfants se vider et cela finira avec des jeunes qui s'ennuieront dans la rue", a ainsi commenté Chris Gayling, ministre de l'intérieur du cabinet fantôme conservateur. Dans le même ordre d'idées, la National Society for the Prevention of Children a jugé que cette législation mettait en péril "des activités parfaitement saines et normales". "Quand un dispositif destiné à protéger les enfants est critiqué de toutes parts, c'est qu'il va trop loin", a de son côté jugé Chris Huhne, pour les libéraux-démocrates.

Ed Balls, le ministre de l'éducation, a dû annoncer, lundi 14 septembre, qu'il allait faire réexaminer l'ensemble du dispositif pour vérifier que le gouvernement "a bien placé le curseur là où il faut". Sir Roger Singleton, le président de l'ISA, a jusqu'à décembre pour juger si des "ajustements" doivent être envisagés.

M. Balls a jugé utile de préciser que "les adultes qui rendent occasionnellement service à des amis en allant, par exemple, chercher leurs enfants à l'école, ne seraient pas concernés. Pas plus que les parents qui se rendent à l'école de leurs enfants pour le spectacle de Noël, ou autre".

La loi de 2006 qui a créé l'ISA et sa base de données trouve ses origines dans un fait divers qui a ému la Grande-Bretagne en 2002. Holly Walls et Jessica Chapman, deux petites filles de 10 ans, avaient été tuées à Soham (Cambridgeshire) par Ian Huntley. Cet homme travaillait dans le collège voisin, bien qu'il ait été impliqué dans des affaires d'agression sexuelle et de viols. Mais il n'avait pas été condamné dans ces dossiers.

"La fureur qui a saisi le pays avec l'affaire de Soham nous a tous rendus paranos", juge aujourd'hui le détective à la retraite Chris Stevenson, qui a mené l'enquête sur les deux meurtres. Londres "a surréagi", juge-t-il, alors que la plupart des affaires de pédophilie sont le fait de membres de la famille ou d'amis. M. Stevenson n'est pas certain que la nouvelle loi aurait empêché le drame : Ian Huntley a rencontré ses victimes parce qu'elles étaient les élèves de sa compagne, rappelle-t-il. Et cela, aucune loi ne pourra rien y changer.

Il y a quelques jours, M. Stevenson accompagnait son petit-fils de 9 ans à un match de football. Il était en train de le mitrailler avec son appareil photo quand un entraîneur lui a demandé de supprimer toutes ses prises ou de demander l'autorisation à tous les parents qui étaient présents.

 By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor -  - The Telegraph - 11 Sep 2009

Any formal agreement to ferry youngsters to and from the likes of Scouts, dance classes or local football matches, even if only once a month, will fall under the Government’s new Vetting and Barring Scheme.

It means anyone who fails to register and have their backgrounds checked faces a fine of up to £5,000 and a criminal record.

Parents who help children read in class or those who host foreign pupils as part of school exchange trips will also have to be vetted by the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and undergo criminal record checks.

School governors, dentists, pharmacists, prison officers and even dinner ladies are among the huge list of people who will now fall under the scheme, which starts to be rolled out next month and will eventually cover 11.3 million people.

Anyone who is paid for their efforts will also be charged a £64 fee to register, although unpaid volunteers are exempt from paying.

Critics warned the system, the largest database of its kind in the world, is disproportionate and will put people off volunteering or carrying out public duties.

It has been set up in the wake of the Soham murders and is aimed at stopping paedophiles getting access to children or inappropriate people working with vulnerable adults.

It is the first time the true scope has been revealed and will cover even those with the briefest of contact with children.

The Information Commissioner’s Office, the data watchdog, fears such a large database will present a security risk to people’s personal details.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “Children’s safety is paramount but we are in danger of creating a world in which we think every adult who approaches children means to do them harm.

“The creation of the world’s biggest checking system is a disproportionate response to the problem it is trying to solve.”

Chris Grayling, the shadow Home Secretary, added: "We all understand the need for proper protection of our children but this new regime has the potential to be a real disaster for activities involving young people in the UK.

“We are going to drive away volunteers, we'll see clubs and activities close down and we'll end up with more bored young people on our streets.”

Under the scheme anyone in regular contact with children or vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will have to register with the ISA, a Home Office sponsored body, and have a criminal records check.

It will also cover anyone who can influence those working in such posts, such as the country’s 300,000 school governors.

Parents who make informal agreements among themselves will not have to register.

The Daily Telegraph told earlier this week how the scheme will even take into account lifestyles, relationships and beliefs when assessing an individual’s background.

There is also concern that so-called “soft intelligence” such as unproven allegations will be used in assessments.

Two hundred case workers based at the ISA in Darlington will collect information passed to them by the police, professional bodies and employers and rule on who is barred.

The Home Office anticipates up to 45,000 people will be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults, including some currently in jobs, once the scheme is fully rolled out – compared with around 25,000 currently.

Anyone barred who then tries to work in a sensitive job faces up to five years in prison. Employers knowingly hiring a barred individual face up to six months jail.

The move has already been subject to criticism, including from Philip Pullman, the author, who said the database was "corrosive to healthy social interaction" and has pledged to stop visiting schools to carry out readings in protest.

David Green, director of the think-tank Civitas, warned it may even make employers complacent and rely too much on the system instead doing their own “due diligence”.

A Home Office spokesman said the rules for parents were "a commonsense approach", adding: "The UK already has one of the most advanced systems in the world for carrying out checks on all those who work in positions of trust with children and vulnerable adults.

"Set up in the wake of the Soham murders, the new Vetting and Barring Scheme will, from October this year, ensure these regulations are even more rigorous."

Published: 12:02AM BST 12 Sep 2009

SIR – I cannot drive from home to work without being put under camera surveillance because I am a suspected criminal. I cannot draw euros from my local post office without handing over my passport because I am a suspected fraudster. I cannot catch a holiday flight without being screened and searched because I am a suspected terrorist.

Now I cannot help out with my neighbours' children because I am a suspected child abuser.

How did I become an enemy of the state?

Dr John Leach
Sedbergh, Cumbria

SIR – As a Scout leader, I fear the new database is going to discourage parents from helping.

We already have in place a vetting procedure for adult leaders. The new barring procedure is the result of a government that wants to control all aspects of our lives.

It will not enhance child protection where the majority of abuse is in the home, but it sends a clear message to adults to stay well clear of children.

Geoffrey Bailey
Bristol

SIR – Some 11.5 million people will have to register or face a £5,000 fine and a criminal record. To register, you will have to go through a Criminal Records check, just as I did as a mediator qualified to consult with children.

After a series of bunglings, my first application was lost altogether. The clear certificate arrived a year from my original application. During that year I was not able to consult directly with any children as part of the mediation process.

The average time for the check seemed to be about six months. Those wishing to ferry children to and from rugby matches will also be prevented from doing so until the check has been carried out.

Nick Symondson
Bledlow, Buckinghamshire

SIR – What will the new vetting of 11.5 million people cost the taxpayer? How many children's lives would have been saved in, say, the past 10 years, if the system had been in place?

Increasing health spending for children might be less trendy but more effective.

Alastair Rogers
Colaton Raleigh, Devon

SIR – The majority of child molestations are instigated by itinerant live-in partners of single mothers, a domestic arrangement encouraged by this wretched Government's crazed welfare policies.

Andrew Bremer
London SE21

SIR – A convicted murderer, I read, is training to become a London taxi driver. Will the Independent Safeguarding Authority let him carry children in his cab?

Richard Jenkins
London SW3

MPs and us

SIR – A year ago, my son in Liverpool, aged 56, was made redundant.

He was unable to manage on Jobseeker’s Allowance and arranged to take a small amount of money from his private pension, as a result of which the allowance was cut to £10 a week.

He has now been told that his housing benefit has been overpaid, as he was being paid for a one-bedroom flat which he rents, but, as he shares a bathroom with other tenants in the building, he should have received only an allowance for a shared residence. He has been told to repay an overpayment of £1,000.

It makes me wonder what this country (of which I have always been so proud) is coming to, when a government system will not accept responsibility for its mistakes, but takes the money back from someone living on a pittance, while MPs get away with claiming thousands of pounds while receiving a good salary.

My husband and I, 79 and 81 years old, frequently have to fund our son from our pensions. In my view, there is something very wrong with a system that treats vulnerable people in this manner.

Marjorie Allen
Maidenhead, Berkshire

SIR – The intentions of the Conservative Party to scrap “gold-plated public pensions” (report, September 10) would be more credible if MPs put their house in order and gave up their own platinum-plated pension scheme.

A.G. Dale
Emsworth Hampshire

Not firing Alistair Cooke

SIR – As your obituary of Alastair Osborne (September 9) observed, he did indeed “care deeply” for those who worked for, and with, him: to such an extent that the BBC management chose precisely the wrong man to send to New York to end the contract of Alistair Cooke for his long-standing Letter from America broadcast.

Osborne told me the story of how he arrived in New York with the letter of dismissal in his pocket; how he lunched happily with Cooke and simply could not bring himself to fire him; and how he returned with the letter still in his pocket.

The result: more happy years for BBC listeners as Cooke continued his broadcasts for years to come.

Of all the good producers I worked with over the years as a BBC foreign correspondent, Osborne was exactly what your obituary said he was: “… a highly regarded figure of integrity and wisdom”.

John Osman
Steyning, West Sussex

Bring back milk bottles

SIR –Freddie Fox-Andrews (Letters, September 9) would be doing a huge favour to the environment if he set up a campaign to rid us of plastic milk and drink containers.

Thanks to him for identifying one of the largest consumer-led carbon footprints.

Sue Stacey
Nether Stowey, Somerset

A sorry apology

SIR – Would Gordon Brown like to issue a personal apology to Oscar Wilde? And while he’s about it, to my cousin Edgar?

Reggie Byram
Elland, West Yorkshire

SIR – Once again Mr Brown is sorry for the actions of others. When might we expect an apology from him for what he has done to Britain over the past 12 years?

Anthony Cutler
Malvern, Worcestershire

Alarming TV listings

SIR – I see that Tony Ball is likely to be appointed chief executive of ITV, and that one of his first priorities would be the company’s declining advertising revenues (Business, September 11).

As I understand it, this is a result of the mechanism imposed by the regulator that restricts ITV’s ability to negotiate its advertising rates when its audience share is in decline (as it has been for years).

Turning to The Daily Telegraph’s television viewing guide for Thursday September 10, I note that ITV1 was inviting me to watch:

7pm, Emmerdale, “Paddy is crushed when Carl reveals he has slept with Chas”;

8pm, Emmerdale, “Paddy tells Chas he wants her out of his life”;

8.30pm, Coronation Street, “Becky prepares to be sent to prison”;

9pm, The Bill, “A known paedophile and his friends are suspected of creating indecent images of a four-year-old girl”.

I don’t think that Mr Ball will have to look very hard to find the cause of ITV’s decline in audience share.

Andrew H. Molle
Castel, Guernsey

The NHS and old people

SIR – Professor David Oliver (Letters, September 8) is unrealistic in saying there is no excuse for age discrimination in medical treatment. A resource-limited system must apply those resources where they will maximise the general benefit.

Thus, a 42-year-old, breadwinning father of three young children is inevitably a more worthy subject than a 71-year-old pensioner like me, and vastly more productive than “investing” in a terminally ill 90-year-old.

Douglass MacDonald
Ilford, Essex

Hello, hello, hello

SIR – When did it become acceptable to begin a letter “Hello”? I get both “Hello Roger” and “Hello Mr Bullock”, even from people old enough to know better. These are mostly emails, but are not emails merely the electronic equivalent of ordinary letters? Do you get letters to the Editor that start: “Hello Sir”?

Conventions for addressing people face to face are not the same, of course. I wouldn’t expect anybody to come up to me in the street and say, “Dear Roger”. In fact, I would feel most uncomfortable.

In salutations, the context is all.

Roger Bullock
Turnchapel, Devon

Don’t mistake a less empty order-book for recovery

SIR – We are manufacturers currently operating at 50 per cent of capacity, as are many other West Midland companies.

Headlines will no doubt written that we are out of recession when we climb to 51 per cent capacity. What will we call the missing 49 per cent?

Andrew Siddons
Managing Director
Joseph & Jesse Siddons Ltd
West Bromwich, West Midlands

SIR – Global consumer consumption has fallen off a cliff – but apparently this is a bad thing. Central banks and governments are trying to ramp up consumer spending by injecting hundreds of billions of pounds into the system.

Apparently, they think that we should all keep taking out loans for cars and other consumer goods to fuel their policies for an ever-expanding economy. It is unthinkable from their viewpoint that the economy should contract.

However, is it not a good thing that consumers have tightened their wallets? If car production has drastically fallen, that means less use of the world’s natural resources. That’s what we want, isn’t it?

I thought “green issues” were all about reducing consumption and less output and pollution. So, surely less industrial capacity and output is what we need.

You can’t have it all ways. To expand the economy continuously means we have to continually increase the burden on the natural resources of the planet. Is what we are seeing in the economy an order of events that must prevail for the human race to continue?

Tim Hannis
Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France

SIR – When the original prizes for Premium Bonds are restored, that will be the end of the recession.

Brian T. Collins
Gillingham, Kent
 

source : - Thursday, 11 September 2008

Johann Hari remarque qu'au moment de la rentrée scolaire en Angleterre, 
des dizaines de milliers d'enfants sont oubliés et ne "rentrent" nulle part. 
Il distingue quatre groupes de "non-instruits", et chacun est un scandale.

1 - Les "enfants instruits à la maison". Contrairement à la croyance populaire, on n'est pas obligé d'envoyer ses enfants à l'école en Angleterre. On peut décider de les garder à la maison sans avoir à en informer qui que ce soit. Et personne ne viendra vérifier. Résultat : personne ne sait combien d'enfants sont concernés. Personne ne les compte. On estime leur nombre à 50 000.
Bien sûr, certains d'entre eux sont bien éduqués, mais d'évidence il s'agit d'une minorité. Le journaliste Rob Blackhurst ayant enquêté dans le monde du homeschooling a découvert que des enfants de 12 ans n'ont jamais appris à lire. L'enquête la plus précise sur le sujet révèle que 50% des parents instruisant leurs enfants à la maison pensent qu'il est inutile de leur apprendre à lire et écrire avant huit ans. En Grande Bretagne, la majorité des enfants sont constamment testés et évalués, tandis qu'une minorité est totalement abandonnée.
Des enfants peuvent ainsi disparaître. Une fillette de 7 ans, retrouvée en début d'année morte de faim chez elle à Birmingham, avait été retirée de l'école pour être "instruite à domicile". Pour cette raison, le homeschooling est illégal en Allemagne. Notre loi doit être modifiée afin que les autorités locales puissent régulièrement rencontrer les enfants scolarisés à la maison. S'ils ne sont pas correctement instruits, ils devraient être inscrits immédiatement dans une école
.

3 - Les enfants emprisonnés. Nous envoyons les enfants en prison plus vite que jamais auparavant. Le nombre des moins de 16 ans a augmenté de 800% depuis 1992. 40 % d'entre eux sont analphabètes. Du moins pourrait-on penser que là, au moins, ils seront instruits et formés pour trouver un travail. 
Pas du tout. Une étude de la Howard League for Penal Reform qui a visité toutes les prisons détenant des adolescents a constaté une situation désastreuse. Pour un travail beaucoup plus difficile, les enseignants y sont moins payés que dans une école ordinaire. Beaucoup décrochent, les équipes sont insuffisantes. Pas étonnant que la plupart des jeunes quittent la prison aussi ignorants qu'à leur entrée, et que 80% y reviennent dans les deux ans qui suivent.

4 - Les enfants demandeurs d'asile. Chaque année, 2 000 enfants n'ayant commis aucun crime sont emprisonnés dans les "centres d'immigration". Ils sont enlevés de force de leur domicile ou de leur classe, sans même avoir le temps de rassembler leurs affaires personnelles, et enfermés derrière des portes métalliques. Ils ne savent pas pour combien de temps; certains y restent plus de six mois. Ils ne peuvent jouer ni étudier. Leur "crime" ? Etre arrivés en Grande Bretagne pour fuir une persécution.
J'ai déjà écrit sur les enfants traumatisés rencontrés au centre de détention de Yarl's Wood. Cette semaine, dans New Statesman, l'un de ces enfants raconte son histoire.

Après tout ce temps, devons-nous reprendre l'un des plus vieux débats démocratiques : le droit de chaque enfant à recevoir une éducation ? En 1880, le parlement britannique vota une loi disant que chaque enfant devait aller à l'école. Plus d'un siècle plus tard, des milliers d'enfants attendent encore. Dans un pays qui n'a pas d'excuses.

Thursday, 11 September 2008  -

Across Britain, children are half-gleeful and half-groaning as they finally head back to school. But amidst the bustle of the school-run, there are tens of thousands of forgotten children who aren't going anywhere. They are being denied an education – and set up to fail for life. The children left outside the school gates fall into four quite different groups – and each one is a scandal.

The Untaught One: the "home schooled." Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to send your kids to school in Britain. If you decide to keep you child indoors and uneducated, you don't have to inform the local authority – and nobody will come looking. As a result, we have no idea how many children are kept at home. Nobody is counting. But the current estimate is 50,000.

Of course, some of these kids are well-taught – but there is disturbing evidence they are a minority. When the investigative journalist Rob Blackhurst journeyed into the world of British home-schooling, he discovered 12-year-old children who had not been taught to read. The most detailed survey of British parents teaching their kids at home found that 50 per cent don't believe in teaching literacy to eight-year-olds. This leaves Britain with a weirdly divided school system. The majority of kids are constantly cooking on the SAT-grill, endlessly tested and Ofsted-ed – while this minority are totally unwatched.

This means children can even disappear. Seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, who was found starved to death in her home in Birmingham earlier this year, had been withdrawn from the school system to be "home-schooled". For precisely this reason, home-schooling is illegal in Germany. The law here needs to be altered so local authorities regularly interview home-schooled kids. If they aren't being properly taught, they should be required to enter the normal school system immediately.
 

The Untaught Two: the "permanently excluded". Over 10,000 children in Britain have been chucked out of school for bad behaviour, and can't make their way back. I know a 13-year-old boy – let's call him Peter – who was expelled for kicking his teacher. He was obviously disturbed: his parents would hit him and even lock him out. Sometimes he can be thoughtful and gentle; but he can fly into paroxysms of rage at nothing.

The expulsion should have been a flashing-red warning sign he was hurtling towards criminality. The education authorities should have swooped in with intensive tuition and counselling. Yes, this is expensive – but it costs a lot less than prosecuting and imprisoning Peter intermittently for the rest of his life.

The opposite happened. He was abandoned by the local authority and left to mooch around the streets untaught. This isn't unusual. The Doncaster Free Press recently decided to track down all the children who had been permanently excluded from their town's schools. They found one third were like Peter, receiving no education, left to "kick around the streets" all day. Many of the rest were "being kicked from pillar to post," attending pupil referral units that were "not fit for purpose, poorly managed [and with] horrible conditions".
 

So most of these kids will soon join The Untaught Three: the imprisoned children. We are jailing kids faster than ever before: the number aged 15 or under has increased by 800 per cent since 1992. Here, at last, you would think they would finally be taught something. These damaged kids are now a captive audience. They have no choice. When the gates slam behind them, some 40 per cent are functionally illiterate. So do we do the one thing guaranteed to make them less likely to mug another granny – intensively teach them to read, and how to get a job?

No. A study by the Howard League for Penal Reform visited every institution that holds teenagers, and found teaching conditions were usually dire. The teachers are paid less than those in a normal secondary school for a much harder job – so there is a high drop-out rate and low commitment. Darren at Huntercombe Young Offenders' Institution explained: "The lesson's been cancelled about once a week. The key skills and Kwik Fit courses have been cancelled as there's not enough staff." No wonder most young people leave as illiterate and unskilled as when they enter – and 80 per cent are back behind bars within two years.
 

The Untaught Four: asylum seeking children. Every year, 2,000 kids who have committed no crime are jailed in Britain's "immigration centres". They are forcibly seized from their homes or their classrooms – without time to gather their belongings – and locked away behind iron doors. They do not know when they will get out; some are held for more than six months. They are not allowed out to play in a park or to kick a ball. They are given virtually no schooling. Their "offence"? To come to Britain fleeing persecution.

I've written before about the racked, trauma-soaked children I have found in Yarl's Wood detention centre. In this week's New Statesman, a typical child-inmate tells her story. Fourteen-year-old Meltem Avcil tells how, when she was seven, her mother brought her here from Turkey, where they were being terrorised for being Kurdish. Meltem has been here for half her life, and says in a London accent: "I feel English through and through." After their asylum claim was declined, they were seized. Guards took them to Heathrow to force them to board a flight to Turkey. They beat Meltem's mother in front of her and said to the girl: "You know if you refuse to go on the plane, we'll put handcuffs on you and tie your feet." The pilot refused to fly such obviously distressed people, so they were taken back to the detention centre for three months – where they won their appeal. Jasmine is back at school and says now: "One day I will show everyone what I am capable of. But I will never forget Yarl's Wood."

After so long, do we really have to refight one of the oldest democratic debates of all – the right for every child to have an education? In 1880, the British parliament passed a law saying every child should go to school. More than a century later, thousands of kids like Khyra, Peter, Darren and Meltem are still waiting – in a country with no excuses.
 
 

UK schools dividing on race lines
The Observer, Sunday May 27 2007
A remarkable picture of how Britain is 'sleepwalking' towards US-style segregation of schools
along racial lines is highlighted today by government figures 
that reveal many towns are developing schools that are overwhelmingly white, Asian or black.