Admission that Education System has failed Maori
te-pati-maori
Thu Mar 29 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Admission that Education System has failed Maori
Thursday, 29 March 2007, 12:43 am
Press Release: The Maori Party
“The Truth At last!” says Maori Party to Government’s Admission that Education System has failed Maori Students “but what’s the big plan?”
Te Ururoa Flavell, Education Spokesperson for the Maori Party
29 March 2007
The Maori Party spoke out today about the Government’s campaign to target the cultural competency of teachers.
“What Te Kotahitanga has done has been to put into print, what Maori have been saying for decades” said Mr Flavell. “That is, that Maori students are treated differently at school than other students – and that this difference has resulted in poorer outcomes for generations of Maori”.
“Cultural competency should become a core and continuing component of the teacher professional development process” said Mr Flavell. “We need to do everything we can, to support our teachers to be the very best they can be for all our children."
Te Kotahitanga Targets Teachers
“But let’s call it what it is” said Te Ururoa Flavell. “Although the Minister may bluff and blunder that the Te Kotahitanga Programme is all about “targeting Maori students”; the central focus of that programme is actually about improving teacher performance”.
The Te Kotahitanga programme is a teacher professional development project which helps teachers to change the way they relate Maori students. The scoping exercise done in preparation for Te Kotahitanga reported that the need for such a project emerged from the crisis state of current teacher expectations:
“The teachers spoke of students’ deficiencies as being the major barriers to students’ progress and achievement. In fact, there was a strong preponderance of a pathologising of Maori students lived experiences by the teachers which in turn limited their interactions with Maori students in culturally and academically engaging ways.
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In effect, this study shows that many teachers believe that Maori learners are simply less capable of educational achievement because most come from limited language and economically poor homes. In addition, the teachers as a group were very uncertain as to where solutions might lie. (Te Kotahitanga; Ministry of Education, 2003; p28)
“We were really saddened to see that in the scoping exercise, teachers spoke with such little hope and low expectations of being able to make a difference for Maori students. What has led to this sense of helplessness? Is it a system issue? A personality issue? A race issue?” asked Mr Flavell.
Need for increased investment for Maori education across the board
Mr Flavell welcomed the fact that there are currently 33 schools participating in this programme, and said he would be keen to see further investment.
"But what do we find? Despite the fact of positive outcomes from Te Kotahitanga, and the Ministry lauding it as a major breakthrough success, there has been no increase in the number of schools participating in the programme from last year, and that there are no plans to increase the number for 2008. The number remains a paltry 33."
“And let’s not forget the fact that this programme was funded by taking money off Maori (tertiary) students in the first place!” said Mr Flavell. “It shouldn’t be case of Maori students struggling against ‘Maori’ projects for the scraps”.
In Budget 2006, $2m was stripped from Manaaki Tauira, funding which has a singular focus on supporting Maori tertiary students in their study, to fund the new teacher professional development programme, Te Kotahitanga.
The timing of today’s statement by the Minister was particularly poor, following the announcement yesterday that student debt has reached the $9 billion mark, causing AUS National President, Professor Nigel Haworth to conclude that it represents a significant failure by the Government to support adequately students through their tertiary education.
What is Going on?
“The Maori Party is the first to say that anything that addresses institutional bias; that enhances the cultural competency of teachers; that changes the general learning environment in our schools has to be for the better” said Mr Flavell. “But that doesn’t change the fact that research shows that New Zealand teachers in today’s schools have lower expectations of Maori than any other students”.
“We have to be asking – what is happening in the first instance, in our Colleges of Education, our teacher recruitment programmes, our pre-service and in-service professional development, for teachers to be focused on the deficiencies of Maori students, rather than their potential?”.
“One could say that what Te Kotahitanga offers to such teachers, is a reward for the attitudes which are unacceptable in any classroom” said Mr Flavell.
The 2003 report concludes,
“This deficit theorising by teachers is the major impediment to Maori students’ educational achievement for it results in teachers having low expectations of Maori students. This is turn creates a downward spiralling, self-fulfilling prophecy of Maori student achievement and failure”.
“It stands to reason that if you change the way teachers react to Maori students for the better, than we are bound to see improvements” said Mr Flavell.
“We all know excellent teachers who have inspired Maori students to go on and strive for success in every realm” said Mr Flavell. “What we hope will happen as a response to Te Kotahitanga, is that we will see every teacher strive to achieve that same level of excellence”.
“This is something our whanau have been saying across the generations” said Mr Flavell “so we are delighted to finally see some investment taking place”.
But what is the big plan?
“We have to remember that Te Kotahitanga is one part of a very big jigsaw” said Mr Flavell. “A jigsaw which unfortunately has for some years had parts missing – this now looks like catch-up time”.
“But the key interest for the Maori Party remains in the question I have been asking at select committee, of the Minister and the Ministry, for some months now….where is the big plan to address the educational system failure of Maori students?”
“It’s a very small band-aid on a weeping hakihaki” ended Mr Flavell.
Background Information
Twelve schools were participating in the Kotahitanga programme in June 2006. This had increased to 33 by December 2006.
The number of participating schools has not increased for 2007, and the number of schools anticipated to participate in the Kotahitanga programme by February 2008 also remains unchanged at 33.
Five written questions were asked of the Minister of Education regarding the timing of the Te Kotahitanga programme - 00931(2007) to 00935 (2007).
ENDS
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