Ministry of Education clarifies Gloriavale homeschooling
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The Ministry of Education has taken issue with the Greymouth Star article ( January 28) about the future of homeschooling at the Gloriavale Christian Community.
“To make clear the current position on homeschooling within the Gloriavale community, the decision to cancel the private school registration of Gloriavale Christian School does not impact those students who are receiving home education, nor does it impact on the ability of any parent or guardian to apply to the ministry for home education in the future,” acting hautu (leader) south, Andrea Williams, said.
“The statement by the Star that ‘half the school aged children at Gloriavale have apparently been denied the homeschool option’ has no factual basis. It is unsupported by any quotes or comments in the story (and) needs to be corrected,” Ms Williams said.
In a statement to the Greymouth Star yesterday a spokesman for the Gloriavale Christian Community said their leadership were considering a formal legal process to get the Ministry of Education to justify its position on homeschooling.
The spokesman said the correspondence received by members of the community from the ministry in December advising that the school would be deregistered had left families confused about their right to continue homeschooling.
As well as indicating the closure of the school, the ministry “appeared to be ruling out the other existing alternative education options at Gloriavale”, whereby families could apply for an exemption to enable their children to be homeschooled, the spokesman said.
It appeared to them the ministry’s letter concerning the future of education at Gloriavale had “denied us the homeschooling” as the letter had been couched with talk about “all education” at Gloriavale.
Clarity had subsequently been sought from the ministry because the letter as sent had led parents to think homeschooling had also been ruled out as an option, alongside the deregistration of the school, the Gloriavale spokesman said.
“That’s how all the homeschool parents interpreted what (the letter) is.”
Ms Williams clarified that private school registration and homeschooling are separate issues.
“Private school registration and homeschooling are separate issues. The criteria we use to assess a private school and those for home education differ, and are contained in separate parts of the Education and Training Act 2020. A decision on one cannot impact the other.
“As we stated to the Star, all parents in New Zealand have choices in the education of their children. The ministry cannot dictate which option they must pursue, or deny them the opportunity to apply. This has been made clear to the Star multiple times in recent weeks. Any application for homeschooling is dealt with on its individual merits and each child is applied for separately, even within the same family. These are also private decisions. The ministry has obligations to protect the privacy of the children and their families and so cannot breach those obligations in responding to media.”