An Auckland high school student charged with importing methamphetamine is receiving 10 hours a week specialist tutoring at home - with taxpayers picking up the bill.
For the past four months, teachers from Takapuna Grammar High School have been travelling to and from the home of 17-year-old ChunLee to provide one-on-one tutoring in chemistry, biology, calculus, statistics and English.
The PPTA estimates that on average a student in a classroom receives about six minutes' one-on-one time a week.
Lee was "exempted" from school in April after being charged with importing methamphetamine and pseudoephedrine.
The arrangement has angered National's education spokesperson Katherine Rich and advocates for special needs education.
Under the "dual enrolment" arrangement between Takapuna Grammar and the Correspondence School, the Year 13 student receives NCEA work via correspondence and the services of his subject teachers for 10 hours a week. "Fairness dictates anyone accused of a crime has the right to be presumed innocent until proved otherwise," Takapuna Grammar School principal Simon Lamb said.
Colleen Brown, the chairperson of Parent and Family Resource Centre, a group offering support to parents of disabled children, told the Herald on Sunday: "We have many families not only with disabled people in them who are often isolated and require help.
"What message is giving extra teaching hours to a young person in his own home who is charged with committing a criminal offence, sending to us as a community?"
