Katene Rahui: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Katene Rahui: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:17480] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 In rising to speak to the report of the Education and Science Committee on the 2009-10 financial review of the Ministry of Education I am faced with a not unusual predicament. That predicament is that my greatest concern—the issue of Maori disengagement and underachievement in education which is arguably the most significant issue facing education—is barely mentioned in this financial review. I make it blatantly clear that the Maori Party is absolutely committed to enhancing Maori educational success. We want to see faster and more comprehensive improvement for Maori right across the sector. 
There have been some key achievements in education that we must take the time to celebrate. These milestones include the following: an increase in the percentage of Maori children participating in early childhood education from 87.9 percent in 2006 to 89.4 percent in 2010 a 21 percent increase in Maori students gaining a National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 qualification and a 5.5 percent increase in the retention rate at secondary school for Maori from 40.3 percent in 2008 to 45.8 percent in 2009. These are all significant advances and I want to take the time to congratulate the Hon Dr Pita Sharples on his role as Associate Minister of Education in his relentless drive to lift educational outcomes for Maori. 
There are still some glaring omissions that I would have thought the financial review would bring up. The main areas of focus for the review were early childhood education the new curricula the national standards and the review of special education. One would think from reading this review that there is only one language operating and only one curriculum in place. Well it may be breaking news to some but there is another curriculum Te Marautanga o Aotearoa—the Maori-medium curriculum. It is the partner document of  
The New Zealand Curriculum 
. It has been developed for Maori-medium setting levels 1 and 2 but all New Zealand schools can use this document. It is all a matter of the value we place upon ensuring excellence for Maori across all educational settings. It is not a translation of  
The New Zealand Curriculum 
; its development was based on Maori philosophies and principles. 
In my second bout of breaking news for the day there are also national standards in Maori. Nga— 
Kelvin Davis 
: Whanaketanga. 
RAHUI KATENE 
: I thank the member. Nga Whanaketanga Rumaki Maori shows the ongoing progress of tamariki in years 1 to 8 in te reo matatini which is literacy and pangarau which is maths within Maori language immersion education. Why is this so important? It comes down to the evidence that tells us that 40 percent of Maori school leavers from Maori-medium schools qualified for direct entry to university compared with 20 percent of Maori at English-medium schools. Let me repeat that: 40 percent of Maori school leavers from kura qualified for direct entry to university compared with 20 percent of Maori at other schools. That is a powerful statistic. If we want to do something about lifting Maori educational performance then we should be looking at those results and learning from them. If one group has a proven success rate that is 20 percent higher than another group would we not take up every opportunity to study the success of the first group and modify practice accordingly? 
There is another point in the financial review that I will highlight. The Ministry of Education claims that barriers to accessing early childhood education vary considerably and that fee increases are only really a barrier for solo parents or parents on benefits. The House will be aware of course that numerous studies have shown the huge importance of a child’s first 5 years. Surely we should be able to support solo parents or parents on benefits to support their children in their right to participate in early childhood education rather than just accepting it as a barrier and leaving it at that. 
Finally I want to highlight that in the coming year the Government will be facing a task of appointing new chief executives across various departments including the Ministry of Education. Our call to the Government would be that if we really want to achieve progress and improve educational outcomes for Maori we must ensure that management at its highest level is culturally competent and committed to the immediate implementation of Ka Hikitia—Managing for Success in order to plan and manage for Maori educational success. Thank you.