Van Asch Deaf Education Centre is located in Truro Street, Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a special school for deaf children, accepting both day and residential pupils, as well being as a resource centre providing services and support for parents, mainstream students and their teachers. The school was founded in 1880 and it claims that it "was the first fully government funded school for the Deaf in the world." Formerly called the Sumner Deaf and Dumb Institution, Sumner Institution for Deaf-Mutes and Sumner School for the Deaf, the school was renamed in its centenary year as van Asch College in honour of its first Principal, Gerrit van Asch. It is now known as the van Asch Deaf Education Centre. In 1904, an Act of Parliament forced parents to enrol their deaf children at the college (then known as the Sumner Institute). In 1958, the Boy's House was burnt down in the early hours of the morning. The old main building was centred near the hills and Evans Pass. Up until the late 1970s, the philosophy of the school was to prevent the students from using sign language (now New Zealand's third official language).