Home Educated Young People's Own Queen's Speech!

Wednesday, while the Queen announced her government’s new legislative programme, which included a blatant attack on the civil liberties of home educators throughout the U.K., a group of sixteen young people created their own Education Manifesto at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

The young people who created this manifesto are all educated outside the school system. The meeting was led by Chloe Watson (16), chair of The Home Educators Youth Council (HEYC), which formed in response to the recent review into Elective Home Education by Graham Badman and is actively campaigning to stop the recommendations becoming law.

In the Queen’s Speech, the Government announced new legislation to implement some of these recommendations along with a range of other controversial educational and safeguarding measures.

Sitting in front of the tapestry of Picasso’s painting of Guernica (currently on loan from the UN) the meeting began with a debate on the subject of education, culminating in a collective statement on the principles of education.

The Education Manifesto

* Education is what a person needs to move forward in their own life.

* It is for the individual to decide what that education should be.

* Learning happens in many different ways: through conversation, activities, living life, making mistakes.

* Education should not focus just on academic learning.

* Everyone has a right to education but it cannot be forced on anyone.

* The right to education can only be taken and acted upon by the individual.

* It is an individual’s choice whether to learn or not.

* Parents should able to decide whether to send their children to school or not.

* Schools and families should be allowed to make their own rules.

* Schools should be run by school councils, teachers and pupils, not by head teachers or Government policy. The Government’s role is to support learning, not to tell schools or families what to do.

The meeting concluded with a statement of principle: that England is a democracy, led by the people, and served by government. Chloe, the chair of HEYC said "The government is elected and paid for by us, the people, and should work for us. The Government is not in charge of the people. We elect and pay them to help us, so that society continues to work fairly for everyone."

Photos available

Contact: Chloe Watson 07870 104 216. press@heyc.org.uk

or

Coordinator Dr Leslie Safran 07932 616 532 aqahomeeducation@live.com