Listen Now: 
A programme to lift the achievement of Māori students in mainstream secondary schools has been given the chop.
Waikato University Education Professor Russell Bishop says the Education Ministry has confirmed it will stop funding Te Kotahitanga at the end of the year.
Professor Bishop and his team have developed the programme, which is a professional development system to make teachers more aware of the needs of Māori learners, over the past 12 years.
In the schools on the pilot programme, it has proved effective in raising the achievement levels of all students.
The ministry says a replacement project, Building on Success, will be introduced in a small number of schools in term three and extended to up to 100 schools at the start of next year.
Professor Bishop says the ministry keeps looking for a silver bullet but can't see what it has under its nose.
Post Primary Teachers' Association President Angela Roberts says the Te Kotahitanga model closely aligns with the ministry's own research as best practice in secondary schools, and it's a mistake to abandon it.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd
RELATED NEWS
