March 22, 2023
Streaming embedding low achievement for Maori
Christchurch based Maori think tank Tokona Te Raki is calling for an end to streaming.
Executive director Eruera Tarena says New Zealand has some of the highest rates of school streaming in the OECD and also some of the biggest gaps between high and low achievers.
He says streaming clearly discriminates against Maori and Pacific students.
“Streaming manufactures an achievement gap which them limits the opportunites, the career prospects and eventually the incomes of our whanau where Maori and Pasifika ae disadvantaged because at a very early age, probably at the age of six, they’re banded into a low achieving group,” Dr Tarena says.
When students are grouped around lower perceive ability, teachers have lower expectations and that’s reflected in the classroom in a type of systemic racism.