Flavell Te Ururoa: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:620] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chair. Kia ora tatou i tenei ra. I really enjoyed last night’s debate. There were some great contributions from across the House and it was pleasing in terms of Maori education to hear contributions from my own co-leader Pita Sharples; from Mr Kelvin Davis who came from a practical point of view; from Hekia Parata who has been involved in a number of initiatives in respect of Maori education; from Metiria Turei; and also from Parekura Horomia. It was great to know that although we might speak across the House from different perspectives in the end as Maori and as those involved in education we acknowledge the importance of education to each of us. There was a huge wealth of experience in the House last night and all of us being here today clearly shows that we take education seriously. 
I want firstly to recommend the report from the Education and Science Committee in February of this year. New members should have a look at that report because firstly it contains 2 years of work and secondly a huge amount of discussion came to the table. I acknowledge the contribution of the late Brian Donnelly who led that select committee. I think it would be good if this Parliament picked up on the recommendations of that 2-year report. What was it all about? The title of the report was  
Inquiry into 
making the schooling system work for every child 
. I suppose that title recognises that the system does not necessarily fit all students. 
I suspect that Part 1 of the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill—“School enrolment and attendance”—is an effort to get students to go to school. The problem is that the recommendations in this part may well result in parents having to pay fines for their children not showing up but they do not address the fundamental problem. I have some sympathy with the Supplementary Order Paper lodged by the previous Minister of Education Mr Chris Carter but we will consider it down the line. 
Is there a truancy problem? Hell yeah! We do not have to go very far to know that. I do not think that having select committee hearings about whether there is or is not a truancy problem will do very much. There is enough evidence around to tell us that there is a problem and indeed previous administrations have recognised that by way of providing truancy officers the Waitakere truancy project the truancy from school research project and the text messaging project which I understand Mr Mallard was part of initiating. Is there a truancy problem? Yes and we have to acknowledge that. 
As other members have said it is likely that Maori and Pasifika students are participants in truancy. As I said at the Education and Science Committee truancy is a sign of a bigger issue. It is likely that those who are involved in truancy are also involved in the poverty trap and their families are not likely in the end to be able to pay the fines included in this part of the bill. Truancy can be viewed as a sign that the school and/or the system as a whole is not making a connection with the students. We acknowledge that the Te Kotahitanga project was recognition by the previous Government that the teacher making a connection with the students is a very important element of our education—and Mr Davis took that angle last night. We say that that project needs to be developed in light of Part 1. Of course the downside for us at the time was that the Te Kotahitanga money was taken from the manaaki tauira project which was indeed a valuable putea or pool of money available to assist Maori students in the tertiary sector. 
I will confirm some figures in terms of truancy rates. In 2002 truancy rates were 3.6 percent for Maori 1 percent for Pakeha and 2.9 percent for Pasifika students. In 2004 those rates were 3.7 percent 1.2 percent and 3.7 percent and in 2006 they were 4.5 percent 1.3 percent and 1.4 percent. Clearly those who are suffering at the notion of attending school are more probably Maori and Pasifika. 
Is there a better way? Perhaps a lead could be taken from a project that was developed in Hawaii called the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project. Rather than our saying let us just fine parents I tried to look for some sort of solution that had come out of research. I did some research and found that in Hawaii a project had been developed to combat truancy. The project identified five key elements to addressing the issue of truancy: parent and guardian involvement; a continuum of services including meaningful supports incentives and consequences; collaboration with community resources such as law enforcement mental health mentoring and social services; school building - level administration support and commitment to maintaining youth in the educational mainstream; and finally ongoing evaluation including meaningful and relevant outcome data geared towards increasing productive factors and reducing risk. I suppose those are wide-ranging points but truancy is not limited to Aotearoa; it is a factor across the world. Will introducing high fines to deal with this issue make a difference? It seems to me that it will not and the research does not really say that. 
In terms of addressing that matter I have lodged a Supplementary Order Paper and I look for support for it from across the House. Basically it separates the two issues in this bill to allow the issue of truancy to be dealt with by itself and the assessment issue to be dealt with by itself in the belief that upping the fines may not necessarily in the end deal with the issue. If it is about getting our tamariki and our students to go to school putting up fines which may well affect only the parents and not those students will not deal with the bigger issue. The bigger issue is building the relationship between tamariki and the school and indeed as Mr Davis pointed out the teachers themselves and back the other way—between the teachers and the students. 
The Maori Party asks for a little bit more work on the part of the bill dealing with fines. We do not think it will work and we look forward to some support in the House for separation of the issues. It may well be dealt with a little further down the line but from our side of things today is not the day to deal with the issue of fines.