Maori truancy figures ‘time bomb’

new-zealand-national-party

Wed May 02 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Maori truancy figures ‘time bomb’

Wednesday, 2 May 2007, 4:33 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

Tau Henare MP
National Party Maori Affairs Spokesman

2 May 2007

11,000 Maori students are wagging school every week and the situation is getting worse, says National’s Maori Affairs spokesman, Tau Henare.

In Parliament this afternoon, Mr Henare asked when one of the Government’s numerous strategies and frameworks was going to make any difference – because they patently weren’t working yet.

“Maori truancy has increased by 46% since 2002 and is now 71% higher than the average. It is two and a half times that of European and Asian students.

“Has Labour not made the connection between Maori truancy and other statistics which show more than half of all Maori students leave school without a qualification?

“Do they not think these disgraceful truancy figures may be the root cause of why one-in-six Maori students do not have basic literacy or numeracy skills at age 15?

“How many more policies have to be tried?

“So far there’s been the Maori education strategy, the Maori language strategy, the Te Reo draft curriculum, and the Bilingual (Maori/English) Education Outcomes framework – and truancy keeps rising.

“Professor Russell Bishop of Waikato University says truancy is one of the many problems that represent a ‘time bomb’ for young Maori in the future and I agree.

“Let’s do something now before it is too late.”

ENDS

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