MHKs have expressed concern after it was confirmed education chiefs currently have no way of knowing how home-schooled children have performed in GCSEs.

The admission came from Education Minister Graham Cregeen in the House of Keys.

He said: ’We do not have any records on GCSE performance of home-educated children, even though some may register to sit exams at our schools or University College Isle of Man [UCM].

’The schools and UCM only have results data for students who are students at the school/UCM. The results for children who are home-educated would go to the child at their home address.’

While there are no current powers to find out even whether a home-educated child has taken an exam, a proposed law change would give the government the right to know more.

Mr Cregeen, who was responding to questions from former secondary school teacher Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew), also revealed in a written answer that in the past five years, only three home-educated children have sat GCSE exams in a school.

But he pointed out that it was also possible to arrange privately for an exam sitting, so there may have been more. The UCM does not have data on whether any candidates were home-educated.

Mr Moorhouse expressed concern that home-educated children may not have the chance to gain ’internationally recognised qualifications’.

He warned: ’We are potentially failing our duty of care to home-educated children by placing no emphasis on formal qualifications, which potentially means these children could be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives.’

Chris Robertshaw (Douglas East) was also worried by the situation. He said it should be a ’pre-requisite’ that the Education Department knew the outcomes for home-educated children.

Mr Cregeen admitted the Department of Education, Sport and Culture had ’concerns’ at the situation, but it was abiding by the provisions of the 2001 Education Act, which merely requires parents to register with the department.

The new Education Bill, which has just finished a consultation phase, would change that.

Daphne Caine (Garff), who has previously called for ’benchmarking’ of island schools and requested individual breakdowns of primary school attainment levels, argued that it was up to the home educators whether their children should even take GCSEs.

’Does the minister agree that, in fact, home education, the point about it is the freedom to depart from a rigid curriculum and choose what is best for the child, not necessarily GCSEs?’ she asked.

She cited a draft document outlining procedures for home education that recognised parents were not required to teach the national curriculum or provide a broad and balanced curriculum.

Mrs Caine argued that GCSEs were ’not the be and end all’ to the government, which had changed its qualification criteria for the civil service.

The minister said the draft document was not an approved department policy and reiterated that the DESC currently worked to the 2001 Act.

The new Education Bill, which has just completed the consultation stage, proposes stronger measures on home learning and this has become a thorny issue, with parents talking about legal action.

The draft Bill states: ’The department must assess the educational development of children in the island receiving home education.’

Under the Bill assessments must be carried out for each child and the parent ’must comply’ with any request by the department to provide information for assessment.