Māori education struggles link to poverty ignored

Atereano Mateariki Paora Stanley | Māori education struggles linked to poverty ignored

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Ngāi Te Rangi Chief Executive Paora Stanley says a multitude of issues, both inside and outside the classroom, contribute to poor Māori success in kura auraki—not just attendance or low achievement rates.

Today, Education Minister Erica Stanford released the Māori Education Action Plan, which aligns Māori language maths with the Maths Action Plan released earlier this year and marks the beginning of the development of Hihira Weteoro, a phonics teaching tool.

One in four students in our schools are Māori, but by Year 8, only 12% of Māori in English-medium schools meet the maths standard, and just 39% attend school regularly.

Stanley says the government is too focused on what happens in schools and ignores the impact of poverty on children and their whānau.

He says Ngāi Te Rangi runs programs to help parents gain skills, such as obtaining a full driver’s license, making it easier for them to increase their income.

“It raises a family wage, so the kids can go to school, right? And so the kids are not having, you can have one parent at home, because that one parent is now earning the wages of both. It can change the dynamic of it all,” says Stanley.

Paora Stanley says classroom overcrowding is a significant in-class issue, that teachers have long been advocating to address.

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