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Education and Training Bill - Submission to the Education Committee [2020] NZHRCSub 1 (14 February 2020)
Last Updated: 10 June 2020
1

Submission of the Human Rights Commission on Education and
Training Bill
14 Feb 2020
Paula Tesoriero MNZM, Disability Rights Commissioner
Contact: Douglas Hancock, Senior Advisor Douglash@hrc.co.nz
Submission of the Human Rights Commission on Education and
Training Bill
Introduction
- The
Human Rights Commission (‘the Commission’), welcomes the opportunity
to provide this submission on the proposed Education
and Training Bill (the
Bill).
- The
Bill updates and consolidates the current Education Acts (1989 and 1964). Its
Explanatory Note provides that the Bill “establishes
and regulates an
education system to provide New Zealanders with lifelong learning opportunities
so that they engage fully in society”.
- The
Bill therefore constitutes significant legislative reform and has important
human rights implications. Education is both a human
right in itself and an
indispensable means of realising other human rights.1
- Overall,
the Commission welcomes many of the reforms that the Bill introduces, which we
note have arisen from an extensive education
reform work programme and public
consultation.
- However,
at the outset of this submission, we wish to emphasise that in its current form
the Bill is a missed opportunity to make
explicit the government’s human
rights commitment under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD) to
provide an inclusive education system for students with
disabilities.
- The
Commission therefore urges the Education Committee to amend the Bill to
incorporate the right to inclusive education into its
text and provide it with
full, unequivocal and enforceable legal recognition, as has been recommended by
the UN Committee on the
Rights of Persons with
Disabilities.
- In
our view, such an amendment would significantly strengthen the capability of the
Bill to improve educational outcomes for disabled
people and improve the
disproportionately poor employment and community outcomes that they currently
experience. Labour market statistics
indicate that nearly 35% of disabled young
people between the ages of 15 and 24 are not in employment, education or
training, as
compared to 10% of non-disabled young people.2 Strengthening the Bill’s commitment to
the human rights of disabled people is therefore required if it is to
meaningfully address
structural discrimination on this
scale.
1 General Comment No. 13:
The right to education (article 13) (1999) (Adopted by the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Twenty-first Session,
E/C.12/1999/10, 8 December 1999)Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/d)GeneralCommentNo13Therighttoeducation(articl
e13)(1999).aspx
2 https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/labour-market-statistics-disability-june-2019-quarter
General Comments
Background on Inclusive Education
- Under
Article 24 of the CRPD, New Zealand is committed to ensuring an inclusive
education system at all levels and lifelong learning.
An inclusive education
system that meets the requirements of Article 24 of the CRPD must
demonstrate:
- equality
of access to an inclusive, quality education (Art
24(2)(b))
- reasonable
accommodation of the requirements of disabled students (Art
24(2)(c))
- the
delivery of support within the general education system (Art
24(2)(d))
- support
measures that are effective, individualised, provided in an environment that
maximises academic and social development, and
consistent with the goal of full
inclusion (Art 24(2)(e)).
- The
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has described the following
four principles (the four ‘A’s’)
as central to an inclusive
education framework:3
- Availability
– This requires that “functioning educational institutions and
programmes must be available in sufficient
quantity”. This includes
teaching staff and resources. In order to ensure that the quantity of services
is sufficient to meet
needs, accurate data gathering and monitoring is
required.
- Accessibility
– This requires that the entire inclusive education system is accessible,
including buildings and physical infrastructure;
information and communication
systems; transport systems and services; and support services and reasonable
accommodation in all educational
environments, including sport and recreational
programmes and facilities. It also requires economic accessibility in the form
of
free primary education and (ideally) free secondary
education.
- Acceptability
– This entails “an obligation to design and implement all
education-related facilities, goods and services
in a way that takes full
account of and is respectful of the needs, expectations, cultures, views and
languages of persons with disabilities”.
- Adaptability
– This requires an education environment that can be adapted to the
diverse needs of students. To this end, the
CRPD Committee encourages the
application of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, which provide
teachers with “a
structure to create adaptable learning environments and
develop instruction to meet the diverse needs of all learners”. The
CRPD
Committee also encourages a move away from standardised assessment and testing,
towards recognition of individual progress towards
broad goals, alternative
routes for learning, flexible instruction, and multiple forms of student
assessment.
- Inclusive
education is not just about systems and services; it is also about teachers and
the school leaders. Teachers and school
leaders with positive attitudes towards
inclusion are more likely to
3 The Independent Monitoring
Mechanism under the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities’
Report ‘Article 24,
The Right to an Inclusive Education’ 2016, see
page 6 at https://www.hrc.co.nz/your-rights/people-disabilities/our-
work/making-disability-rights-real/
adapt the way they work for the benefit of all students and are more likely to
influence their colleagues in positive ways to support
inclusion.4
- Under
clause 5, the Minister may issue a statement of national learning priorities. We
suggest the current wording of clause 5(4)(c)(i)
could be strengthened regarding
inclusive education.
Recommendation:
- That
clause 5(4)(c)(i) of the Bill is amended to ‘to instil, in each child and
young person, an appreciation of the importance
of the inclusion of different
groups, persons with different personal characteristics and disabilities and the
importance of everyone’s
role in making people feel
included’.
Explicit Reference to International Law
- Sections
3 and 8 of the current Education Act 1989 provides for the right of any person
(disabled or not) to enrol and receive education
at any school, while section
8(1) affirms equal rights to primary and secondary school students who have
‘special educational
needs’. However, the current legislative
framework does not expressly incorporate inclusive education or reasonable
accommodation
principles under the CRPD. Nor does the Bill (in the relevant
mirror clauses such as clause 33).
- We
recommend strongly that the Bill is amended to expressly refer to the commitment
under Article 24 of the CRPD to provide and uphold
the right to inclusive
education. As referred to in the introduction of this submission, we note that
both the UN Committee on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child have respectively recommended that the New
Zealand
Government establish an enforceable right to inclusive education into
law and establish comprehensive measures in doing so.5
- The
recent amendment of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 is an example of a public
sector agency seeking to affirm a commitment to human
rights. Section 5
(1)(b)(i) of that Act requires that ‘’the child’s or young
person’s rights (including those
rights set out in UNCROC and the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) must be respected
and upheld.’’
- It
is vital that our education system is implemented in accordance with New
Zealand’s domestic and international human rights
commitments. Our primary
recommendation is therefore that a purpose statement incorporating the right to
inclusive education is included
in the Bill including a CRPD- compliant
definition and elements.
Recommendation:
- Insert
clause 33 (3) for the avoidance of doubt, all disabled students have the right
to an inclusive education, consistent with Article
24 of the
CRPD.
Where is the transformation
- We
note our discussion above about the features of an inclusive education system.
One of the Government’s stated education objectives
is to deliver a
‘world class inclusive public education’
4 Dr Thomas Hehir, “A
summary of the Evidence on Inclusive Education” Report, Harvard Graduate
School of Education 2017
accessed at http://allmeansall.org.au/research/
page 9
5 CRPD/C/NZL/CO/1, 31 October 2014,
paragraph 50 and CRC/C/NZL/CO/5, 21 October 2016, paragraph 30(c)
system. Creating a truly inclusive education system requires transformation to
occur for many stakeholders at multiple levels. Systems
and structures that
recognise and incorporate diversity and diverse approaches are therefore
required.
- General
Comment No. 4 (2016) of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities on the right to an inclusive education
under Article 24 of the CRPD
(the General Comment)6 provides guidance to
governments on its implementation. Among other things, the General Comment
provides that:
The right to inclusive education encompasses a transformation
in culture, policy and practice in all formal and informal educational
environments to accommodate the differing requirements and identities of
individual students, together with a commitment to remove
the barriers that
impede that possibility....It requires an in-depth transformation of
education systems in legislation, policy, and the mechanisms for financing,
administration,
design, delivery and monitoring of education [emphasis
added].
- Transforming
the education system to be truly inclusive is not just important from a human
rights perspective but also from an early
investment perspective. Disabled
children and young people who disengage from the education system invariably go
onto disproportionately
poor employment and youth justice outcomes. If we get it
right for disabled students, the benefits to New Zealand as a whole will
eventually be immense and quantifiable.
- The
proposed changes in the Bill do represent improvements, some significant, to the
current system. These include the dispute resolution
process and the Codes of
Conduct. But we submit the Bill can still be significantly strengthened to
transform the system.
- For
example, under clause 6, the Minister and the Minister for Māori Crown
Relations: Te Arawhiti may jointly issue a statement
that sets out expectations
for agencies serving the education system. We endorse the intent of this section
but suggest it could
also be used to set expectations regarding equitable
outcomes for disabled students.
Recommendation:
- That
a new clause 6A be inserted which mirrors proposed clause 6: 6A Statement of
expectations
- (1) The
Minister and the Minister for Disability Issues may, for the purposes of
providing equitable outcomes for all students, jointly
issue a statement that
sets out expectations for agencies serving the education system.
- (2) The
statement must specify what those agencies must do to give effect to public
service objectives (set out in any enactment)
that relate to inclusive
education
- (3) Before
issuing the statement, the Ministers must consult disabled people and their
representative organisations
- (4) The
statement must be issued to each agency specified in the statement and published
in the Gazette.
- (5) A statement
issued under this section is neither a legislative instrument nor a disallowable
instrument for the purposes of the
Legislation Act 2012 and does not have to be
presented to the House of Representatives under section 41 of that
Act.
6 CRPD/C/GC/4, 2 September
2016
The current generation needs to be counted
- Many
of the proposed reforms in the Bill may take years to effectively implement and
evaluate. This generation cannot afford to wait
years for the implementation of
the aspects of this Bill that are meant to make a difference for
them.
- There
is a dearth of quality disaggregated data regarding disabled students in the
system, particularly regarding the range of conditions
and impairments in the
system. This data is vital, not only for effective service delivery and
effective operation of this Bill,
but also for compliance with our international
obligations. We acknowledge that the Ministry of Education is aware of this
issue
and some initiatives such as the Learning Support Action Plan will be
responding in part to these matters. However, we submit a commitment
to quality
data collection and sharing to underpin policy and service delivery for disabled
students needs to be present in legislation.
This helps to give effect to our
obligations under Article 31 of the CRPD.7
- Currently,
there appears to be no comprehensive or systemic process of data collection that
enables an accurate picture to be formed
of the prevalence of disability in the
education system and current levels of uptake rates in respect of
disability-related education
support services.
Recommendation:
- That
a subsection be inserted in clause 4: ‘(e) is informed by quality, secure,
disaggregated data about the learning support
and other needs of the student
population’
Enforceable right to education
- The
Commission supports clause 32 of the Bill and making the right to full time
enrolment explicit. We understand that all too often
disabled students have been
pressured or forced to attend part time. Many other disabled students are often
refused enrolment or
dissuaded from enrolling by their local
schools.
- We
submit however that, in order to mitigate against this, this right must be
legally enforceable. There accordingly needs to be a
mechanism for the Secretary
of Education to direct a school to let a disabled student enrol full time. This
direction would also
need to ensure that the school environment for that student
was accessible, welcoming and safe; as we would expect for any other
student.
Recommendation:
- That
clause 32 include an enforcement power for the Secretary of Education to direct
a school to meaningfully support a disabled student
to attend full
time.
Co-design
- Article
4 (3) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘the
Convention’) provides that disabled people
should be actively involved in
the development and implementation of relevant legislation and policies.
Co-design is more than just
consultation. It is about disabled people as
partners shaping the policy formation and implementation of matters that concern
them.
7 Under Article 31 of CRPD,
State Parties are required to collect disaggregated statistics on disability to
enable good policy development.
- Disabled
people to be active partners in the education system and education reform. The
development of Codes of Conduct (anticipated
in proposed sections 153 (for Board
Members) and 565 (for teachers)) provides an opportunity to prescribe minimum
standards of integrity
and conduct for Boards of Trustees and
teachers.
- We
suggest a Code or Codes could be used, for example to spell out obligations such
as compliance with international instruments such
as the Convention, as well as
expectations for Board Members and Teachers operating in (and thereby helping
generate and support)
an inclusive education system. These instruments will be
vital for increasing the visibility of disability and disability rights
within
mainstream education, and disabled people should be involved in their
co-design.
Recommendation:
- That
clause 153 (2) (c) be inserted ‘must consult with disabled people and
their representative organisations and encourage
co-design’
- That clause 565
(3) (d) be inserted ‘must consult with disabled people and their
representative organisations and encourage
co-design’
Dispute Resolution Processes
- The
Commission welcomes the introduction under clauses 202-215 of the Bill of an
independent dispute resolution process for resolving
serious disputes at school.
We further welcome the broad scope of the scheme under clause 203, which
includes coverage of:
- The
rights of students to enrol and receive education at
school;
- Matters
concerning learning support;
- Stand-downs,
suspensions, exclusions and expulsions;
- Racism
and discrimination;
- Student
physical and emotional safety, including regarding physical force used by school
staff;
- The
rights of students to enrol and receive education at
school;
- Matters
concerning learning support;
- Stand-downs,
suspensions, exclusions and expulsions;
- Racism
and discrimination; and
- Student
physical and emotional safety, including regarding physical force used by school
staff.
- The
introduction of the scheme responds to calls for such a review process from many
quarters and is testament to years of continued
advocacy by children and youth
advocacy organisations. We also note that aspects adopt the methodology proposed
in a pilot scheme
developed and promoted by
the Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and
the New Zealand School Trustees Association in 2018.8
- The
Commission envisages that the availability of this independent process - via the
direct accountability it provides - should enhance
school practices in the areas
covered under clause 203. This should, in turn, lead to better outcomes for
students, particularly
those with disabilities and those who experience bullying
and discrimination in school.
- The
Commission submits that the dispute resolution process needs to operate in a
manner consistent with natural justice and procedural
fairness. Supported
decision making is a foundational right of many other rights contained within
the CRPD.9 Disabled people who are
interacting with these processes may need support or accommodation in order to
meaningfully participate with
them.
Recommendation:
- That
the Committee confirm in its Report to Parliament that the proposed process
related to the Dispute Resolution Panels will operate
in a manner consistent
with obligations in domestic and international law related to procedural
fairness and natural justice
- That Clause
208(7) be inserted ‘all aspects of the Dispute Resolution process must
reasonably accommodate the needs of disabled
people’.
Physical Force
- We
note that the Bill proposes the following changes to the current physical
restraint framework in schools:
- including
a requirement that physical force is used only as a last
resort;
- replacing
the terms “physically restrain” and “physical restraint”
with “physical force”, with
consequential amendments to relevant
definitions;
- changing
the threshold for when physical force can be used from when a teacher or
authorised staff member reasonably believes “the
safety of the student or
of any other person is at serious and imminent risk” to when a teacher or
authorised staff member
reasonably believes “it is necessary to prevent
imminent harm to the student or another person”;
- defining
“harm” for the purpose of these provisions as “harm to the
health, safety, or well- being of the student
or the person including any
significant emotional distress suffered by the student or person”. This
includes harm to other
students, teachers, and teacher aides;
and
- requiring
the Secretary for Education to make rules defining ‘physical force’
within six months of the Bill receiving
Royal Assent.
8 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12114349;
see also https://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/OCC-Education-Priorities-2018-2019.pdf
9 Article 12 CRPD
- Studies
and anecdotal evidence tend to show that disabled children and young people are
at greater risk of violence and abuse than
their peers. A recent national 2019
survey in Australia, for example, conducted by Children and Young People with
Disability Australia
(CYDA) found systemic issues regarding abuse, exclusion and
neglect of disabled students. Half of the students surveyed said they
experienced bullying, one in four were restrained or excluded, and one in 10
children were refused school enrolment. 10
- Again,
in a recent New Zealand IHC survey, 67% of education professionals surveyed said
they were aware of disabled students being
bullied in the last 5 years.11
- We
note the rationale for the changes and cannot, on the evidence that we have,
support a relaxation of the wording regarding physical
restraint. Physical
restraint has a very specific, deliberately narrow meaning. While we acknowledge
‘physical force’
will be defined in Rules and that it may be clear
that physical force is to be used as a last resort, on balance, we do not think
disabled children will be safer due to the proposed changes. The risks of any
broader wording than the status quo will fall disproportionally
on disabled
children.
- We
understand some proponents of these changes are suggesting that they would lead
to additional clarity. We do not think the proposed
wording adds anything which
adds certainty for anyone, additional to existing legal frameworks and guidance.
As one example, whether
the word in law is ‘restraint’ or
‘force’, the exact actions a teacher has to take prior to and after
a decision
to intervene physically has occurred, are still not clearly
prescribed in law. Changing ‘restraint’ to ‘force’
adds
nothing to an understanding of quality de-escalation. This is a matter for
implementation not legal reform.
- Teachers
will always need to use informed professional judgement and common sense in
these matters. We submit it would be a better
use of resources to invest
significantly in education and guidance regarding de-escalation (before and
after incidents), specific
training, and support in disability for teachers and
other staff.
- Additionally,
we submit the proposed definition in practice could prove to be too wide. Clause
95
(3) states ‘In subsection (2), harm means harm to health, safety, or
well-being of the student or the person, including any
significant emotional
distress suffered by the student or person.’
- The
term ‘emotional distress’ is ambiguous and particularly for disabled
students could lead to physical force being used
due to misunderstandings of
communication, cognition and sensory responses of some disabled
students.
- For
situations of risk to people, we submit that the existing settings in the law
are well established. This one example of guidance
from the NZ Police provides
the general position for the use of physical force in New
Zealand:
Everyone is justified in using, in the defence of himself or
another, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be,
it is
reasonable to use.” (Section 48 of the Crimes Act 1961.)
This means you are allowed to defend yourself from attack, but use your
common sense. The idea is to defend yourself, not to cause
injury or get
revenge. If you use unreasonable force, you are committing a crime.
10 https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2019/10/children-with-disability-face-bullying-and-exclusion-in-aussie-schools/
11 IHC Education Survey Results 2019
accessed at https://ihc.org.nz/sites/default/files/documents/results.pdf
Your first concern should always be for your own safety and that of others
with you. Never take the law into your own hands or take
unnecessary
risks.12
- We
need to address the systems-level issues (as said, the training and support of
teachers in being inclusive, why de-escalation is
or isn’t working in
specific circumstances, how to respond to specific disabilities) before we
loosen up the use of force in
schools. This sends completely the wrong signal to
our children and our society about the use of violence as a problem-solving
technique.
- We
note we have seen the Children Commissioner’s submission on this Bill and
we endorse their comments on this topic.
Recommendation:
- That
the Committee reject the Bill’s proposed amendments to the current
physical restraint provisions and retain the current
wording. We recommend that
emphasis is placed on implementing the existing framework, including increasing
support for de-escalation
techniques, improving understanding about inclusion
education and increasing understanding about the current legal framework, in
particular the human rights obligations that apply.
Discriminatory Direction to Enrol
- Clause
36(1) gives the Secretary of Education a power to direct a parent to ensure that
a student has education or help from a special
service. It carries over section
9 (1) of the Education Act 1989. This section creates an unfair, if not
discriminatory, duty on
parents of disabled children or be potentially be
convicted. Parents of non-disabled children only need to ensure that their child
enrols in any registered school.
- No
student should be forced to attend a specialist school, or a particular school,
against their wishes. Disabled peoples’ access
to education must be on an
equal basis with others. To do otherwise suggests not every school is suitable
for disabled people which
is not consistent with one of the stated aims of the
recent education reform process, which is to create ‘world class inclusive
public education’.
- With
what service providers understand now about tailoring services to individuals in
a modern and diverse education setting and with
careful planning and
preparation, it should be extremely unlikely a disabled student would be unable
to have their needs met in the
mainstream environment.
Recommendation:
- That
Clause 36(1) be removed from this Bill.
Other Specific Comments
- In
Clause 5(4)(c)(i) we note that one of the intents of education is that all
children and young people should gain an appreciation
of the importance of the
‘inclusion of different groups and persons with different personal
characteristics’.
12 https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/personal-community/keeping-safe/out-about
Recommendation:
- Clause
5(4) (c) include ‘inclusion of different groups and persons with different
personal characteristics, including disabled people’.
- Clause
10 ‘special programme’ where it says any ‘’other type of
specialised education to overcome educational
disadvantage’’ we note
that to create a fully inclusive public education system, there needs to be a
common understanding
(based on the social model of disability) of what root
causes lead to groups experiencing educational disadvantage. We do not propose
a
specific recommendation here but note this.
- Clause
33 (1) can be strengthened to make it absolutely clear that disabled students
must be allowed to attend the school of their
first
choosing.
Recommendation:
- Suggest
Clause 33(1) be amended to read: ‘Except as provided in this Part,
students who have special educational needs (whether
because of disability or
otherwise) have the same rights to enrol, attend, and receive education at State
schools as students who
do not. For the avoidance of doubt, these rights
apply regardless of the identity, nature of the impairment or the accommodations
required
so that a disabled person can participate fully and meaningfully in a
quality education’’
- Clause
76 relates to stand downs and suspensions. We understand disabled children are
disproportionately represented in stand downs,
suspension and exclusions.
Disengagement with education is a significant factor in young people ending up
in the youth justice system.
Again, there is a disproportionate
overrepresentation of disabled people (particularly those with
neurodisabilities) in the youth
justice system.13
- It
should be clarified in this Bill that disabled children and young people will
not be excluded, suspended or stood down simply because
of their
disability.
Recommendation:
- Insert
clause 74 (d) ‘’the decision-makers to ensure the rights and needs
of disabled students are upheld/protected/accommodated
throughout the
process’’; and
- Insert clause
76(4) ‘’For the avoidance of doubt no student should be excluded,
suspended or stood down only because of
their
disability”.
13 See ‘What
were they thinking: A discussion paper on brain and behaviour in relation to the
justice system in New Zealand’
Dr Ian Lambie at
https://www.pmcsa.ac.nz/2020/01/29/what-were-they-thinking-a-discussion-paper-on-brain-and-behaviour-in-relation-to-
the-justice-system-in-new-zealand/
Additional Matters
Human rights education in schools
- The
Commission notes that clause 5 of the Bill carries over the Minister’s
power under s 1A of the current Act to issue a statement
of national education
and learning priorities (NELP) for early childhood education, primary and
secondary education.
- The
inaugural NELP is due to be released in 2020. The Commission considers that the
NELP provides an ideal platform with which to
promote awareness and appreciation
of human rights in schools. Human rights laws and norms, including the New
Zealand Bill of Rights
Act 1990 and the State’s obligations under human
rights treaties, comprise an important part of New Zealand’s
constitutional
framework.
- The
current wording of section 1A(3), carried over by clause 5 of the Bill provides
that a NELP, among other things, should:
- Promote
participation in community life and fulfilment of civic and social
responsibilities; and
- Instil in
children and young people an appreciation of social inclusion, diversity and
cultural knowledge and identity.
- These
are vitally important attributes and values, particularly in light of the
Christchurch attacks of March 2019 and the urgent
need to counter the promotion
of violent extremism and hatred, much of which proliferates
on-line.
- The
Commission supports the current provisions that are carried over by the Bill.
However, we recommend that an amendment is made
to directly reference human
rights. We note that UN treaty bodies have recommended that the New Zealand
government increase its efforts
to raise awareness of human rights among
children and educators.14
- Human
rights laws and norms underpin civic and social responsibility, social inclusion
and diversity. Knowledge of human rights is
therefore an essential component of
any educational strategy that seeks to promote and instil these values in
current and future
generations.
- The
Commission accordingly recommends that clause 5(4)(c)(iv) of the Bill
to:
...instil in each child an appreciation of the importance of
the following:
(ii) human rights, including the diversity of society and
democratic values and principles.
Religious instruction and observance in schools
- The
Commission notes that the Bill introduces amendments to the religious
instruction and observances provisions that are currently
in force under
sections 78-80 of the Education Act 1964.
14 Committee on the Rights
of the Child, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of New
Zealand, 21 October 2016, CRC/C/NZL/CO/5, paragraph 12
There is currently a legal challenge to those provisions.15 The Commission is appearing as an
intervener in those proceedings.
- Chief
among these amendments is a shift from an opt-out model of participation to an
opt-in model.16
- The
Commission notes that this amendment brings New Zealand law more closely in line
with similar jurisdictions. Canadian case law,
for example, has found that an
opt-out model is discriminatory and in breach of the Canadian Charter of
Rights.17
- However,
under the Bill, state primary and intermediate schools will still be able to
close in order to hold religious instruction
courses. We recommend that the
Committee consider whether other methods, that do not require the closure of the
school, are available.
This could include holding religious instruction courses
outside regular school opening hours and specifying that it not take place
during inclusive extracurricular activities such as school
camp.
- The
Bill is also silent on whether state secondary schools may or may not provide
religious instruction to students. The Commission
also notes that that the Bill
does not extend the requirement under the 1964 Act that education in state
primary (and intermediate)
schools be secular to state secondary schools.18 The rationale for this distinction is
unclear, particularly in light of the application of the New Zealand Bill of
Rights Act 1990
to all state schools.
- We
recommend that the Committee give careful consideration to these matters. In
doing so, it will be important for the Committee to
note that the Bill does not
impact on religious instruction currently undertaken in state integrated or
private schools.
15 Hines & Jacob v
Attorney-General CIV-2018-404-001809, Auckland High Court
16 Clause 56 of the Bill
17 see Zylberberg et al v Director of
Education of Sudbury Board of Education [1988] O.J No. 1488, at 4; Bal v
Ontario (Attorney- General) [1994] OJ No 2814 at 27
18 Clause 93 of the Bill
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