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West Auckland’s Te Kura Kaupapa Māori ō Hoani Waititi is considered the one to beat in secondary school kapa haka competitions, and is also winning on the academic front.
One of its pupils, Te Korou Whangataua Roberts, was the top scholarship winner in the Te Reo Rangatira category of the 2013 NZQA awards.
Tamati Nicholas from Te Kura Kaupapa Maori ō Ruamata in Rotorua topped the Te Reo Māori results.
In all 18 of the 232 students who took Te Reo Māori got scholarships, with two of them outstanding, and six of the 117 Te Reo Rangatira scholars got scholarships.
Scholarship winners get $2000 a year for three years of tertiary study as long as they maintain a B grade average.
One proud winner was 16-year-old Te Manawa Twomey-Waitai from Wanganui City College, who is the first student for his school in 12 years to be awarded an NZQA scholarship.
Over the past two years Te Manawa won the junior and then the senior Māori Speaker of the Year title in the North Island.
He hopes to study for a degree in Sports and Exercise at Waikato University next year.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd
