Letter: Home education can be a help for families
It is disgraceful that the Government uses the law to penalise working families if they take holidays which are considerably lower in cost during term time, which is solely beneficial to capitalists who raise their costs during school holidays.
The running costs of 'any' holiday establishment does not increase so why should these places charge such inflated prices to hard working families?
What families do have the power in is the education of their children. It's estimated that over 50,000 children are home educated in the UK and the figure is rising by 80 per cent per year, and they can't all be unemployed teachers.
The benefit today which will place power back into the hands of working families by home educating children is clearly the opportunity to arrange holidays during any time of the year.
This will not only be a relaxing time, but also can be an educational experience to explore new countries and its people.
Home education has been organised in such a manner that a student can work at the rate he/she feels comfortable with.
The biggest benefit is that all the information is retained rather than current standards within very large classes and stressed out teachers providing homework on a daily basis.
Some readers may say 'what about the child socialising within his or her own peer group?' Well this can be created in many ways through organised activities and informal settings of friends playing around at the house.
I hope people consider home schooling, primarily for the education of children, secondly, to fight back against the Government's stand against working families.
Jamie Lee Venables, Shrewsbury
