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Education Minister Hekia Parata says the government held up its end of the bargain at Turakina Maori Girls College, but it can’t force Maori parents to send their daughters there.
The school is to close its doors for the last time next month.
Ms Parata says all Maori boarding schools are church schools, and in the case of Turakina, it was the Presbyterian church that failed to keep the buildings up to a safe level.
Its roll had dropped below 50, less than a third of capacity.
"Well over half the girls have been on Puawaitanga Scholarships or Bursary allowances from the government. All of the teaching staff are paid by the government. All the curriculum resource is paid by the government. We have certainly kept our part of the arrangement but, it's not possible to keep a school going if parents are not choosing to send their children to these schools," she says.
Hekia Parata says all boarding schools suffer similar problems of trying to keep their rolls up when whanau have so many other options about where they will send their children.
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