July 02, 2018
Low roll crippling Hāto Pētera prospects
Te Taitokerau MP Kelvin Davis says if people aren’t sending their kids to Hāto Pētera it’s hard to justify keeping the Māori Catholic boarding school open.
The school in his electorate on Auckland’s North Shore is under threat of imminent closure, with Education Minister Chris Hipkins consulting on removing its integrated status.
Mr Davis says it’s disappointing the Auckland Catholic diocese has shown no willingness to keep it going, but as an educator he’s concerned at what sort of schooling the handful of remaining students are getting.
"The education of students is the most important thing and I'm not sure if they can get the depth and breadth – well they can possibly get the depth of education in a very few subjects, they certainly can't get the breadth with so few students because there will be so few teachers to teach all the opportunities that students and schools in the vicinity would be able to offer," he says.
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