The Ministry of Education apology over the treatment of Christchurch schools has affirmed what parents and teachers always knew.

The Ombudsman's investigation into the the Ministry's actions has found it mismanaged schools after the 2011 earthquake and caused further stress to traumatised communities.

In 2013 Education Minister Hekia Parata announced she planned to close seven schools and merge 12.

Education Professor Dr Carol Mutch was one of many who tried to stop the closures.

She said by the end of 2013 the Ministry knew it acted wrongly, but never truly acknowledged it until now.

"They were sort of small bites of apology, where as this is a sort of overarching apology."

She said the school communities felt totally ignored and they entirely deserve the apology.

"Plenty of evidence that seemed to be brushed under the carpet and for some reason the closures, the amalgamations, relocations, clustering all took place despite the protests and legal action," she said.