A group that supports home schooling of children has blasted a Labour MSP for making “insensitive, deplorable” comments in the wake of the deaths of three children in Edinburgh.
Fife-based Schoolhouse described Duncan McNeil’s attack on home schooling as “tantamount to grave robbing” and said it would consider making a complaint to the Scottish Parliament.
Twins Luke and Austin Riggi (8) and their sister Cecilia (5) were found dead at their home last week. Their mother Theresa Riggi (46) is charged with their murder.
All three were home-schooled, believed to have been an issue in the custody battle she was fighting with their father Pasquale.
Mr McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, said any inquiry should try to find out if their home schooling delayed the authorities picking up on any risks to them, saying, “Whether it was a factor in this case or not, parents who educate their children in this way have to be accountable.
“Work has been done in England as part of the Badman review to tighten up home schooling laws, and if there is a perception the Scottish system is weaker than the English one, we must act.
“So I was disappointed by the complacent res-ponse from schools minister Keith Brown when I raised concerns over home-schooling six months ago, and I would hope he would look again to see if we can make our system more robust.”
A Schoolhouse spokesperson said, “We find it deeply disturbing that Duncan McNeil has used the deaths of three innocent children in Edinburgh last week to peddle vile personal prejudice and score cheap political points at the expense of a minority community of law-abiding citizens.
“In seeking to peddle personal prejudice and further his vendetta against home educators, he has breached the bounds of decency and demonstrated much more than a lack of judgment.
“The fact the Riggi children were home-educated is no more relevant than the fact they were Americans, and McNeil’s hysterical remarks have caused deep distress and offence to Scotland’s home-educating community who have just lost three young members in tragic circumstance.
“He cannot even get his facts straight. The law in England has not changed-the Badman recommendations were thrown out before the May election.
“Schoolhouse will be writing to his office to demand an apology on behalf of our members and asking him to tell us how draconian regulation of home education might have saved these children.
“In the absence of an apology and retraction, we will consider lodging a formal complaint with the Scottish Parliament.”
The Scottish Government dismissed the MSP’s comments, saying his intervention in a “very distressing case” was “inappropriate and unacceptable,” and “irrespective of where a child is educated, councils have to protect their welfare.”
More than 5000 children are thought to be home-schooled in Scotland. There is no requirement to study for qualifications and Schoolhouse admits it is difficult to take Standard Grades or Highers externally. Parents do not need any qualifications to teach their child, nor is there any formal monitoring of educational progress.
Scottish Government-published guidance in 2008 states that “home education is a key aspect of parental choice, an equally valid choice alongside sending a child to school.”
Reasons for educating a child at home m ay include the wish to follow a particular educational or ideological philosophy, religious or cultural beliefs, dissatisfaction with the school system and a child’s reluctance to go to school, sometimes linked to bullying.
Some parents whose child has additional support needs prefer home schooling as they feel their local school would not cope.
In 2008-09 there were 580 children known to councils as receiving home education due to parental choice who had at some point in the past attended a state school.
Another 175 who had never been in local authority school education were known by local authorities to be receiving home education, but there are more children educated outside school who are not currently known to local authorities.