More detail on the need for huge improvement in our education for Maori children and youth.
I had the privilege of being on Stuff (and their in-print papers) on Friday on the above topic. Most responses are positive and people read the statistics and understand the clear need.
However … writing on this topic always loses me a few subscribers … and this morning I even received an email describing me as a “race traitor.”
The text is below … please have a close read. This is a set of problems NZ must solve and we are nowhere near making significant progress.
As education fails Māori, so it fails the country
Alwyn Poole
January 31, 2025
OPINION: As controversy swirls around the Treaty of Waitangi, the failure of the Crown in keys areas is having a profound effect. One area is education. In education Māori have been divided from the rest since the Treaty was signed.
The latest NCEA results show a 12% decline in level 1 pass rates. Two explanations are given: that the schools that have ditched level 1 NCEA are lower equity index schools (higher decile); and that the compulsory literacy and numeracy credits – just introduced – are having an impact.
This impact, like many historic changes, will be having a much greater effect on Māori as only 57.7% of Māori participants passed reading (compared to 78.8% of European students); 55.1% of Maori passed writing (74% European) and 38.1% of Maori passed numeracy (63% European). A student cannot be awarded level 1 without all three.
In 1840 there were 80,000 Maori and 2000 non-Māori in our nation. By 1896 the Māori population was 42,000 and the European 700,000. The Maori population stayed below 100,000 until 1945 (then 6% of our head count). Underachievement in education of a small portion of the country has a marginal economic impact.
Māori remained less than 10% of our nation until 1983, at which point trends changed significantly. In 2024 the Māori population topped 900,000 and by 2043 will be approximately 21%, with a further 12% being Pasifika – another ethnicity struggling in our education system.
Without properly educating our Māori children from this point productivity will remain low, we will have to keep importing qualified people, and the tax and welfare implications are catastrophic. To grow well, all ethnicities need the highest quality education.
Some are currently invoking the ghost of William Hobson. I have no doubt Governor Hobson would be rapidly spinning if he knew the comparative position of Māori in education, health and employment in 2025. From 1840 the Crown accepted the responsibility to treat Māori as full citizens. A modern understanding of the rights of the child was adopted by the UN in 1989 and New Zealand became a full signatory in 1993. Key points include:
All children having access to education and healthcare.
Children being free from discrimination.
Children having the full opportunity to develop their abilities.
Children being free from economic exploitation and discriminatory conflicts with the law.
That there can, and should be, special provisions for minority groups.
There is ample evidence in education that we are negligent towards Māori. In 2023 28.3% of Māori school leavers did not have even level 1 NCEA (14% for Europeans). Only 17.6% of Māori are currently leaving with University Entrance. For Europeans it is 41.2%.
Only 63.6% of Māori youth stay at school until they are 17 (non-Māori 79%).
In term 3 of 2024, 51% of students fully attended school. For Māori it was a tragic 37.5%.
Post-school, in Auckland, 23.5% of Māori under 24 years old are not in employment, education or training (NEETS). It is 12.2% for the general population. Many schools now say that “success is how you choose to define it”. Just define it as leaving school early and owning a good couch.
Our lowest-achieving schools are disproportionately Māori, however it is not just between schools that the education outcome gaps occur. Most schools have differentials between Māori and Europeans across all academic levels.
My conclusion is that we take the differentials between ethnicities as natural rather than a function of upbringing, previous education or deeply ingrained expectations. For many, Māori are still those tactile kids who can play rugby, love practical learning and are future “stop-go” experts.
It is too easy to hold the high schools fully responsible. We are failing to address the fact that Māori children are arriving at primary school behind and never catching up.
The responsibility of the Crown for the provision of education for Māori must be to see that Māori outcomes match those of Europeans. Every Māori child born from this day forward must have the same opportunity as any other child. Anything less is not only failure but an ongoing breach of the Crown’s Treaty obligations and our responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In education the Government is acting mainly through a change in curriculum with “structural” as the buzzword. It is like trying to knock down a charging elephant by throwing marshmallows. They are tinkering and ignoring the true situation. Our system will continue to track down and Erica Stanford will leave no tangible legacy until:
parenting is massively promoted, supported and resourced;
attendance is fully addressed;
school and teacher quality is trending up quickly;
the massive Ministry of Education (still more than 4000 employees) is completely repurposed and its purpose statement, “we shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes”, becomes true;
and every required action is taken to bring Māori outcomes to the level of European achievement.
The best education we can offer for every Māori child is not “privilege” – it is a right and a Crown obligation.
