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September 18, 2012
Forced merger angers Christchurch kura
Waatea Team
Posted On September 18, 2012
Christchurch’s two kura are crying foul at the Government plans to merge them.
Huata Martindale, the chair of Te Whanau Tahi in Spreydon, says parents suspect the merger with Woolston’s Te Kura Whakapumau Te Reo Tuturu ki Waitaha is designed to clear the way for a new charter school set up by Ngai Tahu.
He says the schools had survived the earthquake and the merger was driven by a neo-liberal political agenda.
"In the proposal that we received from the ministry does acknowledge or make reference to another proposed Maori medium school in Christchurch, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the overflow from the two kura and the bilinguals and total immersion units that are potentially going to be shut down could be a student base for a new school," Mr Martindale says.
The Kura is considering a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal to uphold the mana of parents to make decisions about how their children are taught.
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