Concern at lack of male leaders

A Maori educationalist has sounded an alarm for young Maori men, saying they are failing to enrol in foundation education courses and not coming through as future leaders.

"Kei hea nga tane? (Where are the men?)" asked Solomon Group founder Frank Solomon at a hui on child abuse in Mangere yesterday.

He said later that women outnumbered men by seven to one in the foundation courses that his group provides for Manukau Institute of Technology in Manurewa and Panmure.

"It's absolutely flabbergasting," he said. "We are desperately short of Maori male involvement in the educational field.

"Our observation over the years from the PTEs [private training establishments] that I know is that there are very few Maori men. I'm talking about courses that allow people to go on to nursing or teaching or other high-level courses.

"The corollary is that there are very few young Maori male leaders coming through."

He said the foundation courses were aimed at young people who had not done well in mainstream schooling. But a majority of students on the Solomon Group courses were young women on the domestic purposes benefit.

"For some reason there is not a big register at Work and Income of unemployed men," he said.

"It could be that they are working, but we know through our experience that there is quite a large number of unemployed men.

"That is not reflected in anything from 20 to 40-year-old males coming into our organisation."

He said one thing that might help would be to restore the training allowance for 15 to 17-year-olds, which was no longer available.

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia echoed Mr Solomon's question in his speech at the end of the three-hour hui, but did not offer any answers.