Homeschooled children on their ponies near Gisborne. Pictures supplied.
Homeschooled children on their ponies near Gisborne. Pictures supplied.
Last week, the parents of more than 10,000 Kiwi kids who are home schooled received $398, or less, per child.
It’s one of two payments a year paid out to home schooling families, totalling $796 for the first child, and decreasing for each additional child.
A key initiativein last month’s Budget, named ‘Supporting school choice’, increased the funding for private schools by 11% to an average of $1400 per student, per year.
So why don’t home educators also benefit from a $1400 windfall to support their school choice?
Associate Education Minister David Seymour’s argument in support of increased funding for private schools was clear: “Often parents are making big sacrifices because they would prefer to send their child to an independent school. They pay just as much tax as anyone else, yet the money that comes back for their kids’ education has effectively been getting smaller over the last 15 years.”
This argument applies equally well to home-schooling parents. The money for their children’s education has effectively been getting smaller for 35 years.
The Gisborne Homeschool Group’s production of Peter Pan.
Meanwhile the number of home schooled kids in New Zealand has doubled.
The numbers were relatively static between 1999 and 2017, sitting between 5000 and 6000.
In 2020 - the year Covid-19 hit - there were more than 7000 kids being home schooled, and two years later it had jumped to almost 11,000.
The numbers stayed up over 10,000 in 2023 and 2024. Preliminary numbers for 2025 provided by the Ministry of Education to the Herald indicate this trend is continuing.
For comparison, the number of children being home schooled are about a third of the number of students attending private schools - 33,920 in 2024.
Both of these numbers are much smaller than the 96,824 children in integrated schools and the 720,234 in state schools.
The Gisborne Homeschool Group at a dress rehearsal for their production of Robin Hood. Picture by Rebecca Grunwell
A little over 1% of New Zealand’s school-aged kids are home schooled. They account for roughly the same number of students as the three largest state schools combined: Rangitoto College, Mt Albert Grammar School, and Maclean’s College.
These kids face barriers participating in school sports. In some cases they can’t participate at all and in others aren’t allowed to receive the medals they have won. And even something as central to education as sitting NCEA is complex and potentially costly for them.
The National Council of Home Educators NZ (NCHENZ) surveys homeschooling families every year. One of the questions in the survey asks why families are home schooling. The importance of family and the ability to tailor learning are the leading motivations.
In 2022, families were asked “Was the Covid pandemic (and the subsequent response by the NZ government) a factor in your decision to home educate?” 70% said no.
Among those who said Covid was a factor, more than half indicated they had always considered home schooling, and the pandemic gave the final push they needed.
Cynthia Hancox, Government Liaison for NCHENZ, said many families told her “It was basically a kick in the pants to think about life and go, what matters to us?”
Cynthia Hancox, Government Liaison, National Council of Home Educators NZ
The increase in the number of home schooled kids has happened despite the relatively low level of support available for homeschooling parents.
A common theme in homeschooling groups on social media last week were posts from parents surprised the allowance even exists.
Hancox said the allowance was introduced alongside the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms in the late 1980s and the amount paid did not change for 32 years.
There have been small increases since 2023 to bring the first child allowance to $796 a year. But the $743 families received in 1990 would be $1681 in today’s dollars.
Hancox said, “There needs to be a proper informed review of how that allowance sits because that is the only funding available to home educating families”.
She also acknowledges, “We have chosen to home educate our children, we have removed them from the system, we get it, we’re resourcing this ourselves, we’re making this decision.
But Hancox said a significant number of home schooling parents are doing it because the system couldn’t meet their child’s learning or physical needs.
“Those parents feel like they’ve got no choice,” she told the Herald “[and] now they have to find the funds to meet their child’s needs at home.”
