The Pandemic has changed our world in many ways, and perhaps one of the good things that has come from it is that people everywhere have realised that things can be done differently. Flexible approaches to home education registration were implemented all across Australia, and they proved to be successful and safe alternatives to the face to face meetings that were used in many places.
VQRA - the regulatory body for home education in Victoria - recently announced that home educators will now have the choice of whether to conduct their reviews in person or via digital video link up. If you missed that announcement, you can see it here. How refreshing to see a government body taking a sensible, choice based approach to regulation.
Conversely, in NSW, NESA (the equivalent regulatory body) is preparing to return to face to face visits for home education registration. Although they too are considering a hybrid model with both online meetings and face to face visits, they are planning to dictate who must have which type of visit.
The HEA is pretty sure that when regulators take a flexible approach and offer choices to families wherever possible, that more families are likely to engage in the registration system. What do you think? Do you prefer to have choice and flexibility? Or would you prefer clearly defined rules that must be followed? Take our poll:
Who should choose the mode of the meeting (F2F or online)?
The Home Educator
The Regulator eg NESA