Unregistered Schools

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts
Wednesday 5th July 2023

(1 year, 4 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Barran Portrait Baroness Barran (Con)
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The noble Baroness rightly cited the seven prosecutions; however, she did not repeat the statistic that 129 of the schools investigated have either closed or changed their operations so that they comply with the law. By definition, it is difficult to track illegal unregistered schools, but there are a number of routes—for example, a member of the public or others can report concerns around extremism directly to the department.

Baroness Burt of Solihull Portrait Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
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My Lords, like the noble Baronesses, Lady Blackstone and Lady Whitaker, one of my big concerns about the delay in dealing with these schools is the toll it is taking on the children. They report being unprepared for modern life, forced to study a narrow curriculum from dawn to dusk with no English, maths or science available and not even speaking English. This has been delayed for years. What does the Minister have to say to them?