Waitakere Education Symposium: Opening Address
te-pati-maori
Wed Apr 29 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Waitakere Education Symposium: Opening Address
Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 3:02 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Waitakere Education Symposium: Opening Address
Presented by Hone Harawira, MP for Tai Tokerau, on behalf of the Hon Dr Pita Sharples, Associate Minister of Education
Wednesday 29 April 2009
It’s good to be back here in Waitakere, to share some time together with people whose focus is learning success.
And it’s appropriate that we have this hui here in Waitakere – the land of waterfalls and cascading streams, because for a lot of our kids, being at school can be a lot like standing next to a waterfall – sometimes the blast of cool clear water can be invigorating, sometimes it can be peaceful and slow, sometimes you want it to go harder so you can open your mouth wide and drink it all in, sometimes it just rushes right over your head, and sometimes, and for many Maori and Pasifika children I’d suggest a lot of the time, you just feel like it’s going to overwhelm you, that it’s going to drown you, that you ain’t going to survive the torrent, and that all you want to do is get as far away from it as possible.
But the thing is that it never stops – there is no end to it. We are always a part of the flow; such is the power of education to change the lives of all of our kids; and to change the very soul of this country.
And because it has that power, we need to understand it, to harness it, to make it work for us, and to deal with the rocks and the mudslides that hold back the flow, in the same way that we need to also deal with the blockages that are holding back our kids.
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We need to identify students who are struggling, reduce under-achievement, and lift our performance so that all students can learn and achieve success.
And we have a real commitment to making this happen through initiatives like Ka Hikitia, to help us lift our game in achieving outcomes for Maori – and it is our game, because we all have a part to play in ensuring success for our children.
We need to start building strong relationships between schools and whanau, hapu, iwi and communities to make it possible to build together, the foundation for success.
And we need to build those relationships on respect, because when children and young people sense respect for them and for their culture, they feel more at home, they are more willing to learn.
It is easier for them to succeed if they can see the links between themselves, their whanau, their world, and their education, and we need to start building that relationship before primary school comes around.
We need to start in the kohanga reo; the early childhood education centres.
We need to encourage the value of a quality early childhood education service, we need to lift the numbers of Maori and Pasifika children getting a good start; we need to demonstrate our respect for language and culture; we need to work closely with communities and whanau; and we need to let the parents know that THEY matter too – that their hopes and aspirations, and their support, is vital to the success of their children’s education.
And it’s great to note that here in Waitakere, there are more than 160 early childhood services operating, but in truth, even that is not enough.
We need to ensure that ECE services respond to the growing populations of Maori, Pasifika and Asian parents, and that those services are affordable, accessible, appropriate, and most importantly, high quality, so I’m glad to be able to report the 260 new places in various Pasifika centres throughout Waitakere funded through the Ministry’s Discretionary Grants Scheme.
And we have to get the basics right. We know our kids go nowhere if they don’t have good literacy and numeracy skills, so we need effective assessment to tell us what we’re doing right and what we need to do better; and consistent and common sense reporting to help to make the difference.
Pete told me that when he spoke here two years ago, he talked about creating a dream, an education vision for what we want to achieve in twenty years time.
So it’s good to be back here to help to realise that dream, where Waitakere can be a place that values and provides outstanding educational opportunities and fosters lifelong learning.
And Pete has asked me to especially thank all those involved in the various projects in Waitakere aimed at improving education for our kids:
Those involved in Achieving at Waitakere – the ten schools involved in a programme to raise achievement levels in literacy and numeracy, especially for Maori and Pasifika students.
Those involved in the Kotahitanga project which focuses on improving the effectiveness of teacher practice for Maori students.
Those working in the Kauhua project, developing curriculum that helps kids to want to learn by letting them see themselves in their education.
And the Waitakere Area Principals Association who did the analysis and found that 34% of students in Waitakere were leaving school without formal qualifications, but that 80% of the jobs required tertiary qualifications - a massive gap that we must all help to close, if we are to bridge the gap between education and employment, and if we are to give our kids a decent shot at a future.
And then there’s something else – because next year is the 25th birthday for Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hoani Waititi.
Hoani Waititi has always been one of the guiding lights for the more than 70 kura kaupapa now operating right around the country; Hoani Waititi set the benchmark for many of our country’s emerging kura and wharekura; Hoani Waititi challenges us all to never rest, but to push ourselves always to do better for our tamariki; and one of Hoani Waititi’s founders, and its very first Board chairman, is now the Minister of Maori Affairs, Associate Minister of Education, and leader of the mighty Maori Party.
And that’s not just good news for Maori –that’s great news for Aotearoa, because the facts now show, that given a similar level of resourcing and support, Maori students at kura kaupapa have higher educational achievement, and get better NCEA results than Maori students in mainstream.
And so Pete has also asked me to pass on his ongoing support to Tamaki Tu Pakari, the cluster of 13 kura kaupapa Maori who continue to work towards strengthening whanau engagement and supporting principals and teachers in the Auckland region.
Last month, Cabinet agreed to speed up the establishment process for kura by simply giving them what all other schools get when they are in the first establishment phase – project management, governance training, direct funding, and lifting student numbers to ensure all kura start with two teachers.
As well as that, this year, we also launched the te reo curriculum guidelines, a recognition of the importance of Maori language, and a commitment to its place within the curriculum.
Folks – I began this speech with a reference to the cascading waters of Waitakere, and the ways in which they can resemble our ever-changing world of education.
Waitakere is caught up in the whirlpool of restructuring at the moment, as indeed is the whole of the Auckland region, but whatever that future may bring, we must always recognise and accept the leadership that we must display in education, the role that we play in nurturing our children, encouraging them to learn, and teaching them that learning is a lifelong experience.
We must set aside the hopelessness and despair of deficit model education that has crippled generations of our people, and replace it with hope and aspiration, with opportunity, with achievement, with participation, with collaboration, and with outcomes and success.
Waitakere deserves nothing less.
ENDS
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