Parents facing prosecution over Maori school

The Ministry of Education will prosecute the parents of children who continue to be sent to a Maori school in central Northland and the Maori group that is running the school in defiance of an order that it should be closed.

Ten letters have been sent by the ministry to parents known not to have enrolled their children at a registered school. The letters point out that this represents a breach of the Education Act.

Orauta School, near Moerewa, now renamed Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Maara o Hineamaru Ki Orauta, has refused to close as ordered by the Government following a ministry review of schools in central Northland and the Russell Peninsula areas last year.

The school, now run by an educational trust under Maunga Hikurangi Maori Incorporation, is said by the ministry to be operating illegally because it was officially closed on January 28 and has not been registered as a private school.

The school's roll is thought to be about 20 pupils, but because ministry representatives have been banned from entering the grounds, it does not know exactly how many children are attending.

Ministry spokeswoman Marilyn Scott said the children were attending an illegal, unregistered "school" and the ministry could not guarantee the quality of any education they might be getting.

A final letter sent this year by the ministry to parents and the trust and trustee operators warned of the ministry's intention to prosecute.

The school operators and parents were required within seven days to provide evidence of complying with a section of the act that relates to unregistered schools.

Ms Scott said the ministry received no evidence of compliance and had therefore instructed the Crown solicitors' office to start prosecutions.

A ministry spokeswoman said in Wellington yesterday there was no timeframe attached to the pending prosecutions.

"The process is in the hands of the Crown Law office."