Education Minister Hekia Parata has today received the Ministerial report into the employment of a convicted sex offender in the education sector.

A Ministerial inquiry was initiated in February after it was established that convicted sex offender, Henry Te Rito Miki, had been arrested while in breach of his conditions of release. He was working in the education sector.

The inquiry was conducted by former ombudsman Mel Smith and former chief executive of the Education Review Office, Dr Judith Aitken.

“Parents should be able to send their children to school confident that an individual of this type is not part of the school environment,’’ says Ms Parata.

“This report will help us identify weaknesses in the system and what we need to do to address these.’’

Ms Parata and the relevant Ministers will now consider the report. When and what aspects of the report will be made public will be determined in due course.

The report means that the review of the Teacher’s Council can now get underway. The terms of reference and a review panel are currently being established. It is intended that the review will be completed by September.

“It was always our intention to review the Teacher’s Council but we decided it was more appropriate to wait until the Ministerial Inquiry had been completed. Once the review is complete we will have a much better idea as to how the Council can be strengthened.