ERO slams schools for ignoring Ka Hikitia

The Education Review Office says the Ka Hikitia strategy will lift Maori educational achievement, but too few schools are implementing it.

A major review of how schools are managing their Maori students found widespread failure to develop specific programmes or policies, despite continued evidence of failure.

Charles Rolleston, the ERO's review services manager, says Ka Hikitia suggested ways for schools to bring whanau and iwi into the school to help Maori secondary students learn ... but only a minority of schools have picked it up.

“Schools who have done really great things for Maori students have been those schools that have looked and taken on board the principles in Ka Hikitia. Likewise the schools that aren’t performing swell, they were the schools that we found didn’t look at Ka Hikitia or had read Ka Hikitia and hadn’t taken any action,” Mr Rolleston says.

Schools which don't improve the performance of their Maori students will be put under close scrutiny until they up their game.

CULTURE IN EDUCATION TO BE SCRUTINISED

Meanwhile, a hui in Taumarunui over the next two days will discuss the importance of culture in education.

One of the organisers, Te Huinga Jackson-Greenland from Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Porou, says the principle that one size doesn't fit all is well established in other like health service delivery.

She says contributors like Sir Mason Durie from Massey University and Bentham Ohia from te Wananga o Aotearoa will discuss how a person's cultural identity, language and culture affects what they get out of a service.

“It really is an attempt to gain a range of educationalists, health experts, people in the justice department, people in social services, to I guess unpack further the notion of culture in the context of service delivery, teacher education, rehabilitative programmes,” Mrs Jackson-Greenland says.

PREGNANT WOMEN NEEDED FOR SLEEP RESEARCH

Massey University researchers are looking for pregnant Maori women to join a study on disrupted sleep.

Sarah Jane Paine from Tuhoe and Ngati Rongo says 500 of the thousand women in the three-year E Moe Mama study need to be Maori.

She says sleep apnoea and associated disorders are more prevalent in Maori than the general population, affecting health, performance at work, and relationships.

“The study is looking at how sleep changes during pregnancy and the late stages of pregnancy and then after baby is born to see whether any changes in sleep that happen at those times have an effect firstly on the type of delivery that the woman go through and then if it has an effect on any of their health outcomes,” Ms Paine says.

Hapu wahine who would like to contribute to the Health Research Council-funded study can make contact on 0800 mumsleep.

CALL FOR SOUTH AUCKLAND VOTE TO BE EXTENDED

An Auckland super city candidate wants postal voting to be extended by a week because of problems with the delivery of voting papers.

The electoral officer, Dale Ofsoske. is setting up a special polling booth in Mangere East because voting papers weren't delivered to some streets in south Auckland.

Waina Emery, who is standing in the Papakura - Manurewa ward, says her door knocking in the heavily-Maori ward indicates the problem is widespread.

She wants special booths set up across South Auckland and voting extended.

"I made that call and asked for that because I thought it was a way of getting it sorted and to give the public confidence and I have to be mindful that some people will say ‘it’s just because it’s Maori and they want Maori to do this’ or there will be criticism I just want the poll to last longer because maybe they will vote for me and maybe they won’t but it’s not that at all. It’s all about the fairness for people,” Mrs Emery says.

She says unless action is taken so everyone gets the opportunity to vote, the results are likely to be challenged through the courts.

STANDARDS FOR MAORI SCHOOLS IMMINENT

The Prime Minister, John Key, says Cabinet is considering the next steps towards rolling out national standards for full immersion Maori schools.

Mr Key says he's impressed by the work Maori-medium leaders have put into the draft Nga Whanaketanga Rumaki Maori standards.

He expects Maori parents will embrace the standards.

“The feedback from parents around national standards has been hugely popular and successful because there’s a sense of progress how the child’s doing, a sense of perspective what’s happening with their child and a clear idea what they need to do. Now rolling that out in the Maori immersion schools will again provide the same sort of guidance and insight,” Mr Key says.

GREENIES CONCERNED AT GOLD TREATY CLAIM

Coromandel conservationists want gold left out of the Hauraki treaty settlement.

Paul Majurey, the chair of the Hauraki iwi collective, says Hauaraki's problems with the Crown started when gold was discovered on their land, so gold needs to be on the table now.

But Denis Tegg, a Thames lawyer and long time anti-mining campaigner, says gold and other Crown minerals need to be out of the claim process.

“You've got to differentiate between the land and the minerals beneath it. In the situation with gold, it was not ever a mineral that Maori used or valued so I think the values that applied in Taranaki with oil are likely to apply here.
Mr Tegg says

He has no objection to conservation land being part of the settlement mix.