The number of children being educated at home in England has risen sharply in recent years, prompting concern from Ofsted and the government. But why are they surprised?
According to official figures, home education has more than doubled since the pandemic, with tens of thousands of families withdrawing their children from state schools.
Ofsted’s Chief Inspector has warned that this “surge” risks damaging children’s social development, claiming many parents are acting out of “desperation” rather than conviction.
Labour has responded by proposing tighter regulation of home education, including mandatory registers, increased local authority oversight, and greater powers to intervene in family life. Ministers argue these measures are necessary to safeguard children, ensure consistent standards, and prevent what they describe as “invisible” education outside the state system.
However, many parents dispute the framing of home education as a problem to be solved. Christian families, in particular, point to declining standards, ideological teaching on sex and gender, anti-Christian bias, and a lack of parental consent in schools as key reasons for withdrawing their children. For them, homeschooling is not an act of desperation but a deliberate choice to protect their children’s moral, spiritual, and educational formation.
From a Christian perspective, the state’s increasing hostility towards home education raises serious questions about freedom of conscience, parental authority, and the proper limits of government power.
The children’s bill
Dominic has not seen his parents for nine years to date.
The Children’s Well-being and Schools Bill went through parliament in May 2025. The Bill is perhaps the most brazen assault yet on parental freedom in Britain.
Hidden beneath language of care and protection is a scheme of control. The proposed universal register of children not in school and the state’s power to refuse a family’s request to home educate are clear markers of an institution no longer willing to trust its citizens.
The state’s creeping hand into the realm of home-schooling must be recognised for what it is: a moral affront to the God-ordained order of family and freedom.
The Bible says,
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
The Education Act 1996 says:
Section 7: Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable—
(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
(b) to any special educational needs he may have,
either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.
The 1996 Act and the law in Scotland and Northern Ireland agree with the Bible that it the duty to educate children lies with parents. In the law-book of Deuteronomy, the model nation was told:
Deut 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.
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OFsted Board
Ofsted presents itself as a neutral watchdog, yet its leadership and governance reflect the prevailing ideological assumptions of the education establishment. The organisation’s board and senior leadership are drawn largely from secular, state-aligned backgrounds, with little representation from faith communities or homeschooling families. This absence matters, because policy is shaped not only by data but by values.
Ofsted board members regularly speak from a worldview that assumes state schooling is the default and superior model of education. Alternative approaches, particularly those rooted in religious conviction are often treated with suspicion, as though they are deviations requiring correction rather than legitimate expressions of parental responsibility.
This imbalance helps explain why Ofsted is quick to highlight alleged risks of homeschooling, while showing far less urgency about well-documented failures within the state system: collapsing discipline, widespread truancy, ideological confusion, and safeguarding scandals. When oversight bodies lack ideological diversity, scrutiny becomes selective.
For Christian parents, the concern is not merely administrative but moral. Decisions about children’s education are increasingly being made by people who neither share nor respect biblical convictions about truth, authority, and the purpose of education.
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Faith arrogance
Ofsted’s posture towards faith-based education has long been marked by what many Christians describe as institutional arrogance. Christian schools and families are frequently subjected to intense scrutiny, accused of “narrow worldviews” or “lack of inclusivity” simply for holding biblical beliefs on marriage, gender, and morality.
At the same time, secular and progressive ideologies are treated as neutral or even virtuous. This double standard reveals that Ofsted’s concern is not genuinely about children’s welfare, but about enforcing conformity to a particular moral framework, one that increasingly conflicts with Christianity.
By framing homeschooling parents as desperate or irresponsible, Ofsted dismisses the thoughtful, prayerful decisions made by families who see education as discipleship, not just instruction. It ignores the biblical mandate that parents are stewards of their children, accountable first to God, not the state.
The danger is clear: when faith is marginalised and parental authority undermined, the state moves closer to claiming ownership over children’s hearts and minds. History shows that such overreach rarely ends well.
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Read and pray
READ: Gen 1:27; Deut 6:6-7; Prov 22:6; Eph 6:1-5; Luke 2:51.
PRAY: For parents who are currently homeschooling their children. Pray for the minds of our children and young people.
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