HOME educators in South Devon have lobbied Parliament in a bid to protect their civil liberties.

Parents who have withdrawn their children from the school system to educate them at home fear proposed legislation will seek to abrogate their right to home schooling, while impeaching their civil rights.

Leaf Lovejoy, from Stoke Gabriel, is educating two of her three children at home.

She is also coordinating a petition campaign in Torbay, South Hams and Teignbridge to put pressure on MPs about the issues.

Petitions have already been handed in to all three local MPs, as well as Gary Streeter the MP for South West Devon.

At least 100 such petitions have been handed in to Parliament by MPs from around the country.

Mrs Lovejoy said: "This new legislation flies in the face of what home education is.

"It's completely absurd and would extend centralised control over parents and children. It would be an attack on our civil liberties."

Home educators' concerns follow the publication of the Graham Badman Report into home education earlier this year.

As part of the new education legislation based on the report, social workers would have the power to go into people's homes without a warrant and interview children on their own.

The Badman Report would also decide which parents are to be allowed to educate their own children, track home-educating families on more databases as well approve parents' education plans.

Mrs Lovejoy added: "What this legislation proposes to do is to reverse what's existing now. At present the state reports to parents. That's what Ofsted reports are about.

"Under the new legislation, parents would be reported to the state.

"This is a massive invasion of privacy."

Legally, education is compulsory but school is not.

Home educators feel their legal rights to educate their children, as parents carry the duty in law to ensure that their children are educated, would be removed.

There are about 150,000 families in the UK educating their children at home.

Mrs Lovejoy said: "This is a clever ruse by the Government to control parents, licence them. But this report is flawed and based on flawed statistics. It's families who provide for their children's education, whether it's in the home or at school.

"As home educators we have nothing to hide, but everything to fear from this report and from maverick local authorities."

But Mrs Lovejoy insists the issue is not going away and MPs from all parties will keep putting pressure on the Government for the planned legislation to be scrapped.