Estimates Debate Vote Education

te-pati-maori

Wed Aug 04 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Estimates Debate Vote Education

Wednesday, 4 August 2010, 10:00 am
Speech: The Maori Party

In Committee, Tuesday 27th of July 2010

Tēnā koe, Mr Chair. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe e whakanui nei i tō tātau reo Māori. Mēnā ka āta titiro ki te āhuatanga o ngā take mātauranga, arā noa atu ngā rangahau e mea ana kai raro te Ao Māori e putu ana, ngā tamariki Māori kua noho ngoikore i roto i ngā kura. Āta titiro ki te hunga nohinohi, kura tuatahi, kura tuarua tae rā nō ki ngā whare wānanga, koi rā te kōrero. Nō reira, nei ahau e tangi nei ki a au anō, ki taku iwi, waku iwi, ki te iwi Māori whānui tonu nā te āhuatanga o ēnei kaute, o ēnei rangahau. Ehara i te mea nō nāia tonu nei ēnei āhuatanga, ē kāo. Nō ngā tau e heke nei kua hipa. Nā, kua tae mai ki tēnei wā, anei au e pātai nei i te pātai, me titiro ki hea? Me anga whakamua ki hea? Kai hea te pae rangi e wawatatia ana e tēnei whakatipurangi?

I waenganui i ngā hararei ā-kura kua hipa, e rima ngā hui i tū ki roto i a au o Te Arawa. Ko tētahi mō te uniana Post Primary Teachers Association. Ko tētahi mō te uniana New Zealand Educational Institute, Māori tāku e kōrero nei. Ko tētahi mō te Community Based Language Initiatives, ka mutu, ko tētahi mō ngā kaiako Māori kei roto i ngā kura reo Māori nei me tana titiro ki te literacy, ā, me te hui whakamutunga i tū ki roto i a au i Te Arawa, tērā mō te noho o ngā iwi ki te taha o te Kāwanatanga.

He rawe ēnei hui i te mea i tīmata anō rā te Ao Māori ki te whakakorikori i a ia anō, ki te titiro i tētahi huarahi hei whāinga. Engari, i tētahi ringa, arā nō ngā Māori e hui ana, e kōrero ana mō ngā rongoā, mō te māuiui o te kore mātauranga. Kai tētahi ringa, me kī, ko te tāhuhu o te mātauranga, ko te Kāwanatanga me ōna āpiha. Nā, he kupu taupatupatu ki tērā momo noho, ko te pūrongo i puta i te Education and Science Committee, me kī, he pepehā i puta, anei pea i te reo Pākehā, “positive behaviour for learning; or “best evidence syntheses”. Ko te mate kē, kai te kōrero pea i ētahi wā ngā komiti mātauranga i runga i te hiahia, kia hari koa, kia titiro ki ngā painga engari, o roto i tōku ngākau, kai te rongo anō rā i te mamae o taku iwi e noho nei me ngā uauatanga o te mātauranga. I roto i ngā whiriwhiringa i puta te kōrero o tētahi o ngā āpiha o te tāhuhu o te mātauranga, ko tana kōrero mai ki ngā hui nei, otirā, ki ētahi hui.

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[Greetings to you, Mr Chair. I greatly appreciate the way you are celebrating this Māori language of ours. If you take a careful look at educational issues, much of the research states that Māori are at the bottom of the heap. Māori children in schools continue to underperform: in early childhood, primary and secondary schools, and universities, it is the same. So I mourn for myself, my people, and the Māori people at large, at what these statistics and research show. It is not as if these circumstances are of recent times. Not at all. It is something from years past. So here we are now, and here I am asking questions: “Where do we look? Where is the way forward? Where is the vision that this generation is yearning for?”.

During the school holidays just past, five educational forums were held in my region of Te Arawa: one for the Post Primary Teachers Association; one for the New Zealand Educational Institute—Māori members, that is—one for the Community Based Language Initiatives; one for Māori teachers from immersion education, focusing on literacy; and the final one to do with iwi partnerships.

These meetings were wonderful, because Māoridom began to galvanise itself to find a path forward. On the one hand, the Māori people are there discussing remedies and the frustrations due to a lack of educational opportunities; and on the other hand there are the Ministry of Education, the Government and its officials. A statement that best describes this conflicting situation is the report from the Education and Science Committee, which states rather poetically in English: “positive behaviour for learning” or “best evidence syntheses”. The problem is that the committee at times talks about wanting us to be happy about positive behaviour for learning, but, in my heart, I feel the cries of my people undermined by an education system that excludes them. In the deliberations, a statement was made by an official of the Ministry of Education to these and other forums.]

ends

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