KEY POINTS:
More than half of Maori boys leave school with no qualifications, new research shows.
Waikato University Professor Russell Bishop, who carried out the research, said today the statistics were depressing and represented a future "time bomb" of problems.
Despite a multi-million dollar investment to lift Maori education performance, the number leaving without qualifications appeared to be getting worse, he said.
Prof Bishop said Ministry of Education school leaving tables showed that in 2005, 53 per cent of Maori boys left school without even level one of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), compared with 20 per cent of Pakeha boys.
"The figures were depressing and it is something that we are all going to be paying the price of in the future. Also in terms of social justice, it is unacceptable," he said.
Prof Bishop, whose research was funded by the government, said it was unfair and unacceptable to have a large and ethnically identifiable group of the population who were underachieving.
The ministry's acting Maori group manager, Paula Rawiri, said the data was serious but there was no quick fix.
"We are absolutely taking this very seriously and we have put in place initiatives to address these issues," she said.
"We are beginning to see some differences being made. Over a period of five years, there have been some gains in student achievement."
She said it was not an issue that could be resolved quickly.
The Post Primary Teachers Association said the figures were disappointing especially with the huge funding that had been invested in an attempt to lift Maori educational achievement.
Union President Robin Duff said the problem needed a greater investment.
"We simply have to work harder and better in this area."
Maori Party education spokesman Te Ururoa Flavell said today the statistics were nothing new.
"Maori educators have been asking the state to respond to this systemic failure, for close to 50 years now."
In 1960 the Hunn Report revealed the failure of the Education Department to provide equal educational opportunity for Maori, Mr Flavell said.
"Last year, the United Nations Special Rapporteur described the underlying institutional and structural discrimination that Maori have long suffered recommending that more resources should be put at the disposal of Maori education at all levels, including teacher training programmes and the development of culturally appropriate teaching materials.
"Yet, today's paper reminds us, nothing has changed," said Mr Flavell.
If this was a business, it would have been declared bankrupt long ago, he said.
"How can anyone read results like this without recognising the absolute bias that is evident in our current school system?"
Mr Flavell said the figures depicted the grave levels of injustice and disparities that our education bureaucracy continued to perpetuate.
- NZPA
