More Bureaucracy For Home-Schooling

Christian Heritage NZ leader Ewen McQueen said today that the Ministry of Education was introducing more bureaucracy for parents wanting to home-school their children. The application form completed by all parents wanting to home-school was being modified to include extra requirements. Some of these were vague and unnecessary, such as a requirement that parents “Describe your child's educational needs with regard to maturity level and abilities”. Others attempted to steer parents into following the Ministry’s National Curriculum Framework even though this was not a legal requirement for home-schooling. The CHNZ leader stated,

“Home-schooling produces some of the most well educated and well-rounded young people in our nation. Not only that, but it saves the Government a lot of money. In light of these facts, you would expect the Ministry of Education to be doing everything it could to facilitate and encourage home-schooling, not putting up more bureaucratic hoops for parents to jump through.”

McQueen said that it was appropriate for the Ministry to oversee home-schooling to ensure the legal requirements of the Education Act were fulfilled. However this was already achieved by the existing application form that parents completed, the six-monthly declaration they made, and periodic ERO reviews. The new requirements would add little value not already obtained by these processes, and would simply add extra paperwork.

The CHNZ leader also said many home-schooling parents were not happy that changes had been made without adequate consultation with those who would be impacted by them. The Ministry had records of all home-schooling parents in the country and could have sent them all a draft of the proposed new requirements for their input. McQueen stated,

“These parents are generally doing a great job educating their children, often at significant personal sacrifice in terms of time and other employment opportunities. The Ministry should take the time to properly consult them about changes that may impact on them.”

Ewen McQueen

Party Leader
Christian Heritage NZ

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