May 01, 2023
Kura push case for autonomy
The chair of Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa says the first week of hearings on a Waitangi Tribunal claim into underfunding of Māori medium education has exposed the damage done by decades of foot dragging by the Education Ministry.
Rawiri Wright says founders and principals of kura have shared their experiences of being put through bureaucratic hoops as they fought to get the resources needed to provide education in te reo Maori.
He says kura are sick of being told they don’t count because they only have 5 percent of the Maori school age population.
“Our counter to that is if you’d given us the resource to properly develop and protect this kaupapa 38 years ago, there would be more kura and there would be far more str=udents participating in our kura. You hold all the power. All we are asking is it is time to share some of that agency and authority, to use their words,” Mr Wright says.
He says having a separate Maori education authority is a Treaty of Waitangi right, and the time has come to create one.