Jewish group urges government to tackle Charedi ‘education deficit’

A UK Jewish group that works to combat the impact of religious extremism has called on Labour to do more to regulate the Charedi community. 

Nahamu, which was co-founded by Yehudis Fletcher, warns that strictly-Orthodox children who are home-schooled or attend yeshivas are suffering from a lack of secular education.

Focusing on London and Manchester, the Nahamu education policy paper, published today, says there is a “profound education deficit within Charedi Jewish communities”.

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Speaking to Jewish News, Fletcher said the paper was based on anecdotal evidence and Ofsted reports.

She said: “If an institution walks like a school and talks like a school, it should be called a school and it should be regulated. There are yeshivas operating that way, where children are sent in first thing in the morning and come home in the evening, but they have no secular tuition – they come out not knowing any maths or English or how to read and write in any language.”

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Estimating that thousands of children were missing out on a secular education, she added: “Councils need to know and check what’s happening when parents say their children are being home-schooled.”

If an institution walks like a school and talks like a school, it should be called a school and it should be regulated

Fletcher, said the group would continue to “advocate for children,” adding: “We have spoken to people who have missed out on a secular education, and to people who know their children are not benefitting from an education. Some people have left the Charedi community and some haven’t. The problem of speaking up in the Charedi community is if you stop repeating the party-line you become an outsider.”

In a forward to the Nahamu policy paper, Labour peers Baroness Estelle Morris and Baroness Blackstone wrote: “This paper from the Jewish charity Nahamu, describes serious educational issues in parts of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community,” adding: “We welcome this important contribution by the trustees of Nahamu to the debate on these issues, and hope that it may stimulate some former students of these schools to join the debate also.”

However, a spokesperson for Chinuch UK, which represents Charedi schools, described the report as “disappointing”.

They said: “There is much excellent work happening in Charedi schools, of which the community is rightly proud. Where there are weaknesses, as there are across all parts of the education sector, Chinuch UK and our partners work actively with schools to improve standards.”

Chinuch UK have also invited Baroness Morris and Baroness Blackstone to visit institutions in Stamford Hill. They said: “Having seen the report, we have now written to both peers asking them to come and visit our schools and the community so they can see for themselves the reality of our education and what it is achieving.”

Meanwhile, Abraham Jacobson, a former Hackney councillor, who is Charedi, said yeshivas teach important skills – lacking in the secular system. He said: “Our children are taught morality, how to conduct themselves, they are taught people-to-people skills that aren’t taught in secular education.”