Speech:2009/10 Financial Review of the Ministry of Education
te-pati-maori
Tue Mar 22 2011 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Speech:2009/10 Financial Review of the Ministry of Education
Tuesday, 22 March 2011, 5:53 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
2009/10 Financial Review of the Ministry of Education
Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga
22 March 2011
I rise to take a call on the report of the Education and Science Committee faced with a not-unusual predicament.
That predicament is that the focus of my greatest concern – the issue of Maori disengagement and under-achievement in education- arguably the most significant issue facing education - is barely mentioned in the 2009/10 financial review.
I want make it blatantly clear, that the Maori Party is absolutely committed to the issue of enhancing Maori educational success. We want to see faster and more comprehensive improvement for Māori right across the sector.
And there have been some key achievements in education that we must take the time to celebrate.
Those milestones include
an increase in the percentage of Māori children participating in early childhood education (from 87.9% in 2006 to 89.4% in 2010);
a 21% increase in Māori students gaining NCEA Level 2 qualification;
a 5.5% increase in the retention rate at secondary school for Māori (from 40.3 to 45.8% between 2008 and 2009);
These are all significant advances, and I want to take the time to congratulate Dr Sharples for his role as Associate Minister of Education in his relentless drive to lift educational outcomes for Maori.
But there are still some glaring omissions in focus that I would have thought the financial review would have brought up.
Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
The main areas of focus for the review were early childhood, the new curricula, the National Standards and the review of special education. One would think, from reading this review, that there is only one language operating and one curricula in place.
Well it may be breaking news to some but there is another curriculum - Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (the Māori-medium curriculum).
It’s the partner document of the New Zealand curriculum.
It has been developed for Māori medium settings levels 1 and 2 however all New Zealand schools can use this document in their respective schools – its all a matter of the value we place upon ensuring excellence for Maori across all educational settings.
It is not a translation of The New Zealand Curriculum and was developed based on Māori philosophies and principles.
And in my second bout of breaking news for the day, there are also national standards in Maori - Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori show the ongoing progress of tamariki in Years 1 to 8 in te reo matatini (literacy) and pāngarau (maths) within Māori language immersion education.
Now why is this so important?
It comes down to the evidence – the evidence which tells us that 40% of Māori school leavers from Māori-medium schools qualified for direct entry to university compared to 20% of Māori at English medium schools.
Shall I say that again – 40% of Māori school leavers from kura qualified for direct entry to university compared to 20% of Māori at other schools.
That is a powerful statistic and if we want to do something about lifting Maori educational performance than we should be looking at these results and learning from them.
If Group A has a proven twenty percent success rate higher than Group B wouldn’t we take up every opportunity to study that success and modify practice accordingly?
There is another point in the financial review that I would like to highlight. The Ministry of Education claims that barriers to accessing ECE vary considerably and that fee increases are, and I quote: “only really a barrier for solo parents or parents on benefits”.
The House will be aware, of course, that numerous studies have shown the huge importance of a child’s first five years. Surely we should be supporting solo parents or parents on benefits to be able to support their children in their right to participate in early childhood education rather than just accepting this is a barrier and leaving it at that.
Finally, I want to highlight that in the coming year, the Government will be facing the task of appointing new Chief Executives across various departments including Education. Our call on the Government would be that if we really want to achieve progress in improving education outcomes for Maori, we must ensure that Management at its highest level is culturally competent and committed to the immediate implementation of Ka Hikitia – to manage and plan for Maori educational success.
ENDS
Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}
Using Scoop for work?
Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.
Join Pro Individual Find out more
Find more from The Maori Party on InfoPages.