The number of children who stopped being schooled at home in 2023 was double the figure recorded in the previous two years. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Eden Fusituá
The number of children leaving home-schooling spiked last year, with many families giving up after less than a year.
Education Ministry numbers show 2286 children exited home-schooling in 2023, the highest number on record and double the figure recorded in either of the previous two years.
More than half of those leaving the sector - 1173 - had been learning from home for less than a year and a further 246 for a year.
Despite the high number returning to regular schooling, total home-school numbers dropped only slightly last year from an all-time high of 10,945 to 10,777, still well above the pre-pandemic total of 6573 in 2019.
That is because more than 2160 began home-schooling last year, a figure second only to the preceding year's 4330-child surge of new entries.
The children learning at home last year came from 6298 families and half had been home-schooled for a year or less.
The Education Ministry's national roll projection showed the number of home-schooled children was expected to be relatively stable over the next few years.
"The home-schooling roll is projected to peak at 10,990 students in 2025 and then slightly trend down afterwards. In the long term, the roll is projected to slowly decrease by 536 to 10,454 in 2033 (a five percent decrease from 2025)," the ministry's enrolment forecast said.
The ministry's figures also showed that of those in home-schooling last year, 7233 (67 percent) were Pākehā and 1619 were Māori (15 percent).
There were more than 500 home-schooled children in each of Christchurch, Auckland's North Shore, and Tauranga city last year. There were more than 400 in Manukau, Waitakere, Whangarei, and Auckland CBD.
"The average age of the 2164 students entering home-schooling was 9 years old, 80.5 percent were aged 12 or under and 0.9 percent were age 16 or above," the ministry said.
"The average age of the 2286 students exiting home-schooling was 12 years old, 55.1 percent were aged 12 or under, and 15.9 percent were 16 years old or above. Of the students exiting home-schooling during the year ending 1 July 2023, 51.3 percent had been in home-schooling less than a year, 28.8 percent had been in home-schooling for 1 - 5 years, and 7.4 percent had been in home-schooling for 10 years or more."
Oropi School principal Andrew King said his school and others had noticed an increase in enrolments from families that previously home-schooled.
"There's definitely a growing number that are coming back," he said.
He said some had been long-term home-schoolers and others had their children learning from home only in the past couple of years.
King said he did not know why the families had decided to exit home-schooling.