3. Schools—Māori-medium Education and Māori Charter SchoolsHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National) to the Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education)Schools—Māori-medium Education and Māori Charter Schools3. Hon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National) to the Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education): How will he ensure that children and young people remain engaged in Māori-medium education throughout their entire learning pathway and succeed as Māori?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education)): Through a number of initiatives which include strengthening the supply of Māori language teachers particularly those with higher language proficiency required for Māori-medium education. And as the Prime Minister has just alluded to we're dealing with a large hole left by the previous Government in terms of both teacher supply and in particular Māori language teacher supply.Hon Paula Bennett: How does he reconcile his ministerial responsibility to ensure young people engaged in Māori-medium education succeed as Māori with his failure to stand up for rangatahi at partnership schools like Te Kura Hourua o Whangarei Terenga Parāoa who are succeeding as Māori?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The member's wrong in her premise. I am standing up for Māori students and in fact I've been on the phone regularly with both the senior manager of Te Kāpehu Whetū and the CEO of He Puna Mārama Trust. We're very hopeful of an outcome of successfully transitioning from the current status through to whichever of the three options they decide to take up and we hope to do it sooner than anticipated.Hon Paula Bennett: So what does the Minister think is wrong with charter schools?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: They didn't provide a level playing field and in fact the paper that was produced—[Interruption]—taihoa! [Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The member will resume his seat. I think it would be good if at least I could hear and I'm sure that no members of the Opposition would be able to hear. Sorry before you go I do want to particularly ask members in the second row of the National Party to be a little bit less regular in their interjections. Thank you.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Thank you Mr Speaker. The paper that the Minister of Education proactively released outlined the differences between the charter schools and State schools. Namely the issues are around governance they're around property and they're around teacher registration—nothing at all to do with education nothing at all to do with student achievement and nothing at all to do with pedagogy. Those people over there are worried more about the adults in the system than the children in the system.Hon Paula Bennett: So does his level playing field actually apply to those young people who have been failed in mainstream schools and have found a home and an education that means they can succeed in these charter schools that his Government now wants to close?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The member obviously didn't listen to the last answer. This has nothing to do with pedagogy and curriculum. That's what we're about. There's nothing to stop those same schools doing exactly what they've done in terms of teaching and learning and what they're doing now. These people on the other side of the House obviously do not know what's going on.Hon Paula Bennett: Does he see value in a kuia who may be teaching Te Reo at one of the schools but does not have an education qualification yet is able to teach those young people in a way that has real value and will that be lost if there can no longer be charter schools?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: This gives us an opportunity to highlight our one-year free tertiary education policy. I would recommend that that kuia—and can I just correct her on her pronunciation; it is not koo-eeya" it's "kwee-a"—will be able to participate in tertiary education and retrain as a teacher. That will mean that she will actually get higher pay. She can also operate with a limited authority to teach (LAT) at the moment.Hon Paula Bennett: Does he agree with Willie Jackson who said on the subject of mainstream schools "Why would you want to carry on funding a model which continues to marginalise those tamariki—admittedly mostly Māori—who don't fit in?"SPEAKER: That is now so far away from the original question that it's not an acceptable supplementary.Hon Paula Bennett: It's about Māori education.SPEAKER: No it's not.Hon Tracey Martin: Supplementary.SPEAKER: Supplementary—Tracey Martin. We'll give the member a chance to ask it again in a minute but we'll have Tracey Martin's supplementary while she works on it.Hon Tracey Martin: Can he confirm that under the statutory authority to teach provisions in the Education Act 1989 prior to amendments that opened charter schools kuia and others with special character skills could already teach inside any public school in New Zealand?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: In my 20 years in education we regularly had members of the community come in and assist with teaching be it kapa haka be it Te Reo Māori classes. It's obvious that that Opposition over there just aren't in touch with this subject and don't really know what's going on.Hon Paula Bennett: Will the Minister stand by his previous statement and resign if charter schools are closed?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: There'll be absolutely no need for me to resign. In this context I did speak about the two charter schools up North and as I've said I've been in close contact with the charter schools up North and we hope to have an outcome very shortly. The other thing is it's the model that's going to close; it's not the schools that are going to close. But they won't let the facts get in the way of scaremongering."