NCHENZ

“Of interest to us [NCHENZ] is the National Party’s policy on education, which plans to introduce a national curriculum and standardised testing of primary and intermediate students.

”We assume that homeschoolers will be exempt from such testing since we have exemptions from school attendance granted by the MoE. Homeschooling parents use a wide variety of educational methods which are chosen to suit the specific needs of the student. Home educating parents are highly motivated, and that our varying methods produce well educated children is verified by our excellent results from ERO reviews.

”Prior to the election, can you please reassure our members and contacts throughout NZ that home educators will continue to have the right to choose the educational method which best suits their family, without being subject to a standardised curriculum or testing?

”Kind Regards
Tarnya Burge
committee member NCHENZ

Here is Judith Collins reply

Tarnya

First of all it’s important to note it’s not national testing. It’s about setting benchmarks/national standards about where children should be at a particular age or time spent at school, and then picking up those children who are not achieving the standards and supporting them to achieve them.

ERO will be focused on these standards in all schools and also for home schooling, but the extra support will only be available to state schools. So as and when ERO evaluates homeschoolers, as they currently do, it will be focused on those literacy and numeracy standards.

Regards

Judith Collins