Listen Now: 
February 21, 2022
Agenda too big for kaupapa Māori idealogues
Adam Gifford
Posted On February 21, 2022
Download AudioThe Associate Minister for Māori Education says advocates of a Māori education authority have been unable to say what it will do.
Kelvin Davis is pushing on with reform of kaupapa Māori education despite a boycott from the key sector groups, which have banded together as Te Matakahuki.
He says as a young principal in the 1990s he also called for a Māori education authority until it was pointed out to him that a lot of what he wanted to change was already changing.
He wants to improve the system for 100 per cent of Māori tauira, not the less than 5 per cent covered by Te Matakahuki.
“I gave them the pen and said ‘if you could design a system, what it would be?’ They took 14 months talking in circles, going nowhere. We’re now 14 months behind the game. Ultimately they said ‘we don’t want any part of my agenda.’ My agenda is to triple the number of Māori in kaupapa Māori, Maori medium, whatever you want to call it, byt 2040,” Mr Davis says.
He says the kaupapa is bigger than Te Matakahuki, which is why he has set up a new advisory group, Te Pae Roa, chaired by former language commissioner Dr Wayne Ngata.
RELATED NEWS
