Law to undo 7-year hitch

By BRIDGET CARTER

Education laws may change because of a court case involving a Far North woman who has not sent her children to school since 1996.

Ministry of Education staff are planning a conference today about how they are going to make the mother enrol her four children.

Last week the case came to the Kaitaia District Court after years of unsuccessful attempts by the Ministry of Education to resolve the matter.

Judge Thomas Everitt found in favour of the ministry, convicting and discharging the 38-year-old woman on four counts of failing to ensure her children were enrolled at a registered school.

But at the end of the case, ministry staff discovered the judge was powerless when it came to forcing the mother to provide her children with their legal right to an education.

The mother at the centre of the case was granted permission to have the matter heard in private and her identity suppressed.

Yesterday, she told the Herald that she wanted the reasons for her stance to remain confidential and asked to be left alone.

"I just want to live my life and keep my life to myself," she said.

The ministry's Northland manager, Chris Eve, said laws might well change after this matter.

A review of the Education Act was underway to tidy up pieces of legislation. One of the legal people in national office said they might want to take this case into account.

He said it was frustrating "when you find the law that you think you can use doesn't help you very much. I hoped the conviction or future ones may encourage the family to enrol their children".

The parents had obtained a certificate to home-school their children but permission was revoked by the Education Review Office in 1999.