October 12, 2022
Māori schooling better for disabled
Teachers don’t feel confident about teaching students with disabilities and schools struggle to understand their obligation to support tauira.
Those are some of the findings of a report by the Education Review Office’s Te Ihuwaka education evaluation centre.
Missy Morton from the University of Auckland’s faculty of education and social work says schools that are doing a good job have strong partnerships with tamariki, rangatahi and their whānau.
Those schools are often in low socioeconomic areas with higher numbers of Māori and Pasifika students – which is good because Māori students are more likely to have a disability.
“And unless they are in a school with a high proportion of Māori students they are not going to do as well. What is it about those schools that makes that difference?” Professor Morton says.
There are a lot of online resources available to help schools deal with disabled learners, but many teachers seem unaware of them.