SUBMISSION TO THE EU SURVEY ON CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

We made the strong case that children should have increased rights including the right to choose their own education – as we provide in SML College

 

“Children should have the right to an education of their own choosing.

This is the most significant problem at present. For instance, many children do not find the state provision meets their needs. There is discrimination against working class, BAME, autistic, disabled children in many countries, for instance. In the UK children born in the summer do not have the same right to fair treatment in the exam system so at least 10,000 every year get worse results in public exams at age 16. This is an official Government figure from some years ago and the situation is worse now. Hence summer born children are less likely to go to university - as are working class, autistic and disabled children.

Bullying is endemic in most countries and the research evidence from the UK has shown that severe bullying in school means that the person is 2.72 times more likely to have psychosis in adult life and that at anyone one time almost 100,000 children are suffering post-traumatic stress due to bullying. Research has shown that schools can cause mental illness - for instance studies that show that day treatment in hospitals for child mental health reduces by around 50% during school holidays.

Home education is illegal in some EU countries e.g. Germany and Spain, and is under attack in others such as the UK. Yet research shows that such education outside school is very successful and there is no evidence that children are more likely to be e.g. known to social services than children in school.”

Ian Cunningham, Dec. 2020