Claim Gloriavale treating women like 'mushrooms', calls for end to Govt funding

Women at Gloriavale are being treated like mushrooms to have a life of breeding, an education lobbyist says.

Dr Liz Gordon says the school at the isolated Christian sect on the West Coast is registered even though "the education offered there is substandard".

"Women are free to leave but they're educated to stay and have babies and serve in the kitchen their whole lives," says Ms Gordon who is co-convenor of the Quality Public Education Coalition.

Ms Gordon has been researching the school for three years and believes it should be denied government funding.

"I think the Education Act is totally inadequate, all it says is that the education has to meet the needs of the community but that community holds women down.

"The legislation should require that all New Zealand children are taught the New Zealand curriculum that upholds rights of the child."

Ms Gordon says education should be about liberation and making a better life and while Gloriavale is a highly stable community she doesn't believe it is the life for the 21st century.

It is based on the Old Testament, says Ms Gordon, adding that the issue is about the lives and freedoms of 200 children who get no health education, no sex education, no examination of science.

"I think this is a very damaging education that they get."