Speech: Flavell - Community Education Conference
te-pati-maori
Mon Jun 15 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Speech: Flavell - Community Education Conference
Monday, 15 June 2009, 9:42 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Adult and Community Education 2009 Conference
Te Puna Wanaka
Te Ururoa Flavell, Education Spokesperson for the Maori Party
Friday 12 June 2009; 7pm
E hoa ma, over the last week or so I would have to admit to being a little anxious about coming here especially with announcements made recently in the Budget. While the invitation was issued some time ago, I nevertheless thought, talk about a set up, a hospital pass, having to face all of you who are involved in the adult and community education sector. I am in with the Government that has just cut funding, I personally had very little to do with it and I get to open their conference for goodness sake!!!!
But you know, I am not too fussed now in fact it was probably meant to be. You see it was exactly one year ago today, on the 12th June 2008, that we lost Rereamoamo Monte Ohia. Monte was our candidate to contest the Te Tai Tonga seat in the last election.
I can remember clearly this day one year ago and indeed the night before. It will stay with me for ever I think.
On the night of the 11th, our Maori Party team was here in Christchurch at a hui at Te Rehua marae. We were in the throws of preparing our people for an election to put this Maori Party right in the middle of the political arena.
Monte, as our last speaker that night, was in full flight. I remember him looking up to the photos of those who had passed on and he said some key statements. He said, “we owe it to them” to win our seats. He said, “we have never been this way before”. He said also “this is our time”.
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The next morning, we woke to find out he had passed away and that evening we had him in this whare.
Well, we won his seat, as the strong independent Maori voice in Parliament sitting next to the other Treaty partner, we have certainly “never been there before” but we have had to learn fast. “It is our time”, as a nation to work together where the Maori voice is given dignity and mana.
I leave here tonight to travel back to Wellington first where I will go to pay respects to Rahui Katene our Member for Te Tai Tonga and her family who lost their mother and on a brighter note to celebrate the fifth birthday of the Maori Party in Otaki tomorrow.
And so as I made my way here today to Te Puna Wanaka, the place he loved so much, I think of him. I think of Hohua Tutengaehe and the many other Maori icons of education. They had a huge influence on my education career and on the educational landscape of Aotearoa.
Monte had a simple belief that motivated him and indeed his whole whanau, to look upon education as the source of whanau transformation.
Whanau transformation operates on the premise that whanau members will be more inclined to take up an education pathway if one of their whanau members shows the way.
The transformation came from creating cycles of success – not just in academic outcomes – but also in the restoration and consolidation of the whanau.
I understand that Te Puna Wanaka has introduced a Monte Ohia scholarship which will be awarded to outstanding first, second and third year students working towards a Bachelor of Maori Language.
But I am sure that Monte’s legacy permeates every aspect of this facility in the way that whanau transformation through education has become the guiding philosophy of Te Puna Wanaka.
And so it is entirely right, that the 2009 Conference is here, founded on the basis that lifelong learning through adult and community education is the key to transformation for us all.
I want to thank ACE Aotearoa and Te Runaka ki Otautahi o Kai Tahu for the way in which you have honoured the Maori Party, in allowing us to open this very important conference.
Adult and community education is – and must remain – a significant investment in the future wealth and wellbeing of the communities throughout Aotearoa.
For us in the Maori Party, we have always believed that adult and community education helps to build, nurture and support whanau self-determination if given its wings to fly.
If I can borrow a line or two from my co-leader and Associate Minister of Education Dr Pita Sharples in one of his recent speeches, he said and I quote,
Whether a country is seeking to strengthen its communities, upskill an already largely educated adult population to face the challenges of the world economy, or simply seeking to provide basic education to those who may not previously have been able to participate in education, Adult and Community Education is a vital aspect of the social and economic aspirations of every country.
Your theme, ‘Embracing the future : kia whakapumau te wa kai te heke’ could never be more relevant than at this time, and especially in the context of Budget 2009.
Like I say, I did wonder whether I should be wearing a hard hat tonight, to shield me from an assault of Morrocan food and shell mosaics!
On a serious note though, I am very much aware that this conference is faced with the challenge of responding to the funding reductions for adult and community education totaling $54.45 million – described on Budget Day as reducing the funding subsidy for hobby courses.
I acknowledge that it would be difficult to ‘embrace the future’ enthusiastically and proactively, when we know that there will be a major change for the provision of adult and community education in schools in 2010, with an approximately 50% funding reduction.
It would be difficult to have too much hope when the so called ‘future growth’ of the foundation learning pool; adult literacy educator grants; literacy in industry training and employee one-to-one literacy provision has been removed.
So what is the response that people in this sector should make to the reprioritization of about $67 million from ACE to other education initiatives, over four years?
Well, I return again to the thought, what would Monte have done?
Monte would have rubbed his hands together, put on a brave face, and have announced to us all, “awesome”. You see, when things were up or down, he would take on the challenge as if to say, “bring it on….”. And his stock response would be…… awesome.
And so I read the advice from the Strategic Alliance; the consortium of national adult and community education providers, who said that the sector has a long history of providing high quality adult education in very cost effective ways; and it gave me hope.
This is when we turn to some of the key people – people like Katherine Peet, Dorothy McGray, Sean Regan, Robert Tobias, Peter McNear and my whanaunga Bronwyn Yates amongst others – all people who have been proud to be cause champions for adult education – including fighting to protect and preserve the National Council for Adult Education from being cut in a prior life.
In that period, I am told that these stalwarts wrote to Members of Parliament and asked for the statutory protection of community based learning initiatives – and incredibly the Council survived.
Yesterday, my other co-leader, Tariana Turia, showed me a letter Katherine had written her, requesting that she
“take up this serious matter of loss of resources to our communities and establish statutory protection of community-based learning initiatives”.
And so it is against all of this background that I say to you, that you have our support as a party, in taking these issues further.
You may already have seen a number of questions I asked the Minister of Education in the house, backed up by the conclusions of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report that community-based education has an estimated economic benefit of up to $6.3 billion annually.
Part of the economic value added that we associate with adult and community education, is the capacity of such education to make an impact:
* for students taking up adult learning activities to help them further their work/life options;
* to rectify any deficiencies in skills,
* to help adults engage with their community to avoid social exclusion;
* to encourage parents to learn alongside their children; and
* to empower adults to contribute in a fulfilling way as citizens in a democratic society.
I would have to say that part of my concern about targeting “hobby courses” has been the implication that recreational learning is inherently inferior to any other form of learning. For me by just participating in adult and community learning, it is taking a step forward to another pathway.
Simply getting a foot in the door is the biggest challenge – the next task is, once the door is open, to have support alongside to take the next step.
The Minister has assured us that there will still be funding for adult and community education in some schools, to community providers, to the Rural Education Activities Programme, and to wānanga, and other tertiary institutions.
But the Minister has also suggested that in tough times the funding focus must be on literacy, numeracy, and foundation courses rather than recreational pursuits. From our point of view, in light of the tough economic times and our focus as a party on giving all of our people the best possible kick start into their education, we cannot but say, this may be a fair call but is not about a one or the other approach, and it certainly should not be about funding cuts to the level that is suggested.
Clearly the concerns of the sector are being heard – and I congratulate you all for the way in which you are bringing profile to these issues.
The fact that the Deputy Prime Minister issued a release just two days ago confirming the Government’s commitment to adult and community education and promoting the investment of $124 million over four years tells me that the call is being heard.
Can I make it quite clear, that although we have a relationship arrangement with the National Party, we have also retained the capacity to challenge, in the ‘agree to disagree provisions’.
One may have thought Dr Sharples, as Associate Minister of Education may have been involved in the decisions announced last week - but in reality, responsibility for adult and community education is outside his sphere of influence.
His responsibilities are specified tightly around kaupapa Maori education, Te kotahitanga, wananga, and some transition education programmes.
I wanted to lay out the context to this issue, because I believe it is absolutely critical that in taking up the fight to maintain community based learning, that each of us knows what part we play in preparing to challenge decisions which may serve to limit us.
I was pleased to see the initiative, for instance, in promoting the role of non-formal learning opportunities as not only providing pathways into formal learning but also in building community engagement and social cohesion.
The other really compelling argument is that in encouraging learners to define their own learning journeys, you are enabling learners to take control of their own lives and therefore reducing the likelihood of depending on welfare to meet their needs.
In the preparation to embrace the future, all of us must confront the realities of the recession that we are facing around the globe. We are experiencing big job losses, especially amongst the lower skilled workers. Maori are getting laid off, and not surprisingly Maori unemployment has risen, with by far the biggest effects being seen in the youth population.
We must seize the opportunity before us now – whether we like it or not – to sharpen the focus of our business so that the value of adult and community education is impressed upon everyone.
Last month, an Entrepreneurial Summit was held in Auckland in which a radical concept was promoted: to make New Zealand a “No Moan Zone”.
The summit put forward the revolutionary slogan, that to help create a sense of national pride and identity, the catchphrase, ‘Give it a go, bro’ should be let loose on the market from January 2010.
Perhaps this conference will jumpstart the concept; getting in early, and organizing creative ways to collaborate, to work together and to attract support from new avenues, unexplored territory.
I mean, any conference which includes on its agenda a workshop entitled ‘the Disney pattern – how to generate creative goals for the future’; or promoting circus training as a way to unleash potential, surely has all the factors necessary to ‘imagine what is possible and create it’.
This may be the time to really work wonders in selling the message that adult education is about learning for liberation; that adult education is a stepping stone for further advancement and career opportunities; that adult and community education is about lifelong learning which can only strengthen our communities.
This may also be the time to look within yourselves, to see if there are opportunities that you can generate.
Are there too many programmes or are we providing courses which overlap?
Are there economies of scale which might occur through emphasis on collaboration and working together?
Are there better ways of demonstrating the outcomes you are achieving? Can we be certain that the programmes are results based? Are there improvements we can make through learning design or technology which make our contribution even better?
As Monte would say, “this is our time”.
If you look outside this building you will see the poupou we call Tanuinuiarangi. That poupou represents the story of Tane climbing to the heavens to gather the sacred baskets of knowledge; te kete aronui, te kete tuauri, and te kete tuaatea.
Tane didn’t get tired and give up his journey; he didn’t lose sight of the outcome, the potential for transformation.
So my plea is to pull together, building on our collective strengths, because we believe that adult and community education offers us the bridge to the most radical transformation of our families, our communities, our future.
Adult and community education builds communities. It creates the social fabric of our communities; its very existence is evidence of our commitment to a sustainable learning environment. Adult and community education enhances the resilience and the talents of all learners; it brings people together; and it paves the way for a future packed full of promise.
I will leave the final word to Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, who is planning a workshop for Sunday morning entitled, Na tena rau na tena rau tipu ora ai te rakau – lighting the fire within.
Monte Ohia lived his life with a passion. He lit the fire within by his absolute commitment to his god and the belief in the transformation of whanau through education.
In this, the 2009 conference, perhaps the greatest gift we can offer ourselves, is to think of that fire within – to remember why we committed to adult and community education in the first place - and then to connect to each other, to build a future in which lifelong learning is celebrated as an essential foundation of our nation.
I wish you well for a successful conference and reaffirm our strong commitment to initiatives that contribute to the wellbeing of our people and the nation as a whole.
Monte koia nei ou waihotanga mai, moe mai ra. I dedicate this korero to you Monte. Rest in peace.
ENDS
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