Ministry Of Education Figures A Disgrace – 3285 Maori Children Leave School With No Qualifications

The New Zealand Maori Council has taken aim at the Ministry of Education and said they need to have a Maori led design of a plan that ensures Maori are leaving school with qualifications – anything less and they are in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Council’s Executive Director, Matthew Tukaki, hsa called Minstry figures showing Twelve percent of last year's school leavers did not have an NCEA qualification, up from 11 percent in 2018, The group represented 7464 out of more than 61,000 young people who left school last year, and numbered several hundred more than the equivalent group in 2018. The figures showed nearly half, 3689, were Pākehā, and 3285 were Māori.

The Council’s Executive Director, Matthew Tukaki said he is sick and tired of seeing Maori children being left behind:

“3285 Maori, many of them boys, are out of school with zero and it begs the questions of what exactly is happening and why is it happening. I’ll throw this in there as well – when we see the figures from this year it might want to dawn on the Ministry that a lack of access to technology and the digital divide during 2020 will probably see those figures increase – and unless I have been living under the rock of ages I still have not seen there so called plan on bridging the digital divide.” Tukaki said

“Let’s be really clear here – this is not a Government issue this is a Ministry and officials issue. The Ministry need a wake up call that their engagement with whanau Maori needs to pick up pace and ill also argue strongly that their focus on brining in overseas teachers without doing nearly enough to boost kura, Kaiako and teaching resources to boost learning amongst our Tamariki is a joke – if the Secretary of Education cannot do the job then hand over the keys to another driver and let’s get the train moving from the station.” Tukaki said

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