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Education and Inspections Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: Page 1, line 5, after ““Duty”” insert ““to secure the right to a suitable education appropriate to the child's needs”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall also speak to Amendment No. 2 in the same group. Both amendments are also tabled in the names of my noble friend Lady Sharp and the noble Lord, Lord Judd. My colleagues and I have brought back these amendments because, despite helpful meetings with the Bill team, we have not been satisfied that there is any good reason why the local authority’s duty to secure the child’s right to an education should not be put in the Bill. The Joint Committee on Human Rights, in its report on the Bill, made clear its wish that the child’s right as enshrined in the UN convention be placed in the Bill. The question is how to do it. The Government’s lawyers say that the right is enshrined elsewhere in law, under four pillars, and that if we restate it in the Bill the whole edifice will come tumbling down. However, a different view was taken in Scotland and the world has not come to an end. In the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000, the Scottish Parliament provided in Section 1, entitled ““Right of child to school education””: "““It shall be the right of every child of school age to be provided with school education by, or by virtue of arrangements made, or entered into, by, an education authority””." Section 2, entitled ““Duty of education authorityin providing school education””, provides in subsection (1): "““Where school education is provided to a child or young person by, or by virtue of arrangements made, or entered into, by, an education authority it shall be the duty of the authority to ""secure that the education is directed to the development of the personality, talents and mental and physical abilities of the child or young person to their fullest potential””." I will not tire noble Lords by reading the rest of that section; it is pretty clear. I accept that this is a declaratory statement but it is none the worse for that, and I do not believe thatany civil servants have lost their job because of its inclusion in that legislation. Indeed, in Amendments Nos. 7, 8 and 9, which are very welcome, the Government are doing the same thing. For two years they have been assuring us that schools already have a duty to promote the well-being of pupils but now they see fit to make it clear in legislation. That is what we are trying to do today with the right to education. It might be worth asking why the Joint Committee on Human Rights felt it necessary to include such a provision in the Bill. Children’s right to education is under threat across the world. Political situations, refugee situations and poverty mean that many millions of children do not receive an education. Some teachers even lose their lives for providing education. I was moved and horrified to read that on 25 September Safia Ama Jan was gunned down in Afghanistan by the Taliban simply for teaching girls and giving them their right to education. Teachers in Ethiopia are also being put under a great deal of pressure for providing education. When children’s right to an education is being threatened across the world, it is time for us in this country, where most children are lucky enough to be provided with a good education, to stand up and say so proudly in our legislation, clarifying that we support children’s right to a suitable education appropriate to their needs. Our amendment is not a blank cheque. We are asking for no more than the right of the child as enshrined in the UN convention, not any particular kind of education in a particular school. Lines 7 and 8 of Clause 1 refer to the education functions, "““to which this section applies…(so far as they are capable of being so exercised)””." To fulfil our requested duty, a local authority must show only that it has done its very best to provide an appropriate education for each child. Obviously, we hope that the education they provide will be appropriate for every child and properly resourced. We are not asking for a lot. We are not asking for anything that the Government say is not a child’s right. We are asking that we stand up and be counted on this, and make it quite clear. The ordinary man in the street does not have the opportunity to go to a legal library to consult half a dozen Acts of Parliament and a good deal of case law in order to find out what the law is. We have here an opportunity to make it absolutely clear that it is the duty of the local authority to ensure that parents are carrying out their responsibility to give their child an education, whether that education is provided by the authority itself, bought in from another authority, provided at home, at an independent school, or in another appropriate way. That is all we are asking for: it is little enough. I beg to move.