Qld home school shake-up after shock cult revelations

The state government is quietly reviewing its home school regulations after shock revelations that children in a Queensland cult were taught a strict religious education.

The state government is quietly reviewing its home school regulations after shock revelations that children in a Queensland cult were taught a strict religious education not recognised in the curriculum.

It sparked calls for change from Queensland’s peak body for child services to ensure all students received the foundations of learning, such as literacy and numeracy.

It follows a three-month Sunday Mail and Courier-Mail investigation which exposed the inner workings of an extreme Queensland cult – the Anglican Catholic Mission Community.

The publication obtained court documents in a civil matter that finalised last year outlined the group’s way of life stating that children were home schooled mostly in religion, “preferably using Accelerated Christian Education, published by Protestants in the USA”.

One child from the community was ordered by a Queensland Supreme Court judge to attend a mainstream school after it was found her education progress was so poor.

The child’s writing was “off the chart” and her numeracy was “below the minimum standard”, court documents relating to a custody dispute showed.

Under current state government guidelines, home schooled parents have no obligation to teach kids in accordance to the Australian Curriculum.

According to Education Queensland’s Act, parents accept responsibility for planning and implementing a high-quality educational program when registering a child for home schooling.

While parents must monitor a child’s educational progress, children in home education are not required to participate in NAPLAN or undertake annual testing.

Village Kahawa cafe in Atherton owned by the ACMC. Picture: Brian Cassey

Instead, parents must submit an annual report clearly summarising progress and demonstrating the quality of the educational program provided.

PeakCare chief executive Tom Allsop said home schooled children could be at risk of falling through gaps without “clear and consistent” progress measures.

Mr Allsop said while some students benefit from home schooling, he said the education system must ensure all students receive critical foundations in learning to help them thrive in the modern world.

“When there are no clear or consistent measures for how students are progressing through their home schooling journey, we don’t know how many students and families are falling through the gaps or what support is needed for those doing it tough,” Mr Allsop said.

“Parents and caregivers are instrumental in supporting children to learn and they should not have to navigate this process alone because of increasing demand on home schooling services and shortages of skilled teachers in our education system.”

A department of education spokesman said a review of the education act was underway with a focus on protecting students and modernising the provision of education services.

“This included consideration of potential changes to the laws that establish Queensland’s home education requirements,” he said.

“As part of the review, stakeholder consultation has been undertaken and the government

now needs to consider all of the feedback it has received.”

Several attempts were made to contact the ACMC about its workings but the leader declined to comment.