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Hawke’s Bay principals are questioning why a partnership school for Maori boys is being set up in Napier without consultation or warning.
Te Aratika Academy is backed by a charitable trust set up by drilling and construction company Te Aratika Drilling.
It’s promising the kura hourua will serve the cultural, academic, physical, social and emotional needs of Maori/Pasifika youth and that it will collaborate with iwi, industry partners and other schools.
In a letter to Education Minister Hekia Parata, Hawke’s Bay Principals Secondary Association chair Stephen Hensman said there had been no discussion about how concerns for Maori boys in the Napier-Hasting region could have been addressed within the existing network of 20 high schools.
He says the schools have special knowledge of local needs, and the money could have been better used in projects supported those schools.
Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Meka Whaitiri says the Te Aratika shambles is about opening another charter school rather than having a real plan to improve education for young Maori.
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