Training Education Welfare Officers
It would be an inappropriate use of resources to train hundreds of Education Welfare
Officers in assessing the various methods of home education, each of whom would assess
only one or two home educated children per year; but such assessment must be done by
someone who has been so trained.
Home Education Advisory Council
Only a small number of fully-trained specialists in the field of home education would be
needed if a Home Education Advisory Council was created, to be responsible for the
registration and monitoring of all home-educated children, as is presently the case in
Tasmania.
Home education there is subject to the same registration procedures as those proposed in
the Education (Welfare) Bill, but is dealt with separately from children with "school
attendance problems", i.e., truancy.
Education Welfare Officers are trained to work with children who have school attendance
problems, not with children who do not have problems, but who are just educated differently.
These officers would tend to perceive home-educated children as having problems
because dealing with problems is what these officers are trained for.
It is the perception of being treated as a "problem" that causes the persistence of the
protests of home educators against inclusion in the Education (Welfare) Bill. The
Tasmanian model places home education in its own category, with sensitivity, support and
respect.
We recognise that the Education (Welfare) Bill is to be welcomed for its positive proposals
to solve the problems of early school leaving and poor school attendance. It would be a pity
if much time were to be wasted in debating home-education related amendments when the
Bill should be in place for the benefit of the nation's educationally disadvantaged as soon as
possible. We are of the opinion that the Tasmanian model of including home-education in
its own right within an Education Act would be appropriate here.
References:
International Home Education, Amanda Petrie
http://www.worldzone.net/general/homeducation
The Tasmanian Home Education Advisory Council's policy can be found at:
http://www.tased.ed.au/tasonline/theac
The Home Education Network (Ireland) website:
http://www.ie.embnet.org/hen/
The full text of the Tasmanian Home Education legislation will shortly
be available on this site.
Debra E. James
for the
HOME EDUCATION NETWORK