MP: Help schools help Maori

MP Te Ururoa Flavell, of the Maori Party. Photo / Supplied

Incentives to promote Maori achievements in schools are needed, Maori Party education spokesman Te Ururoa Flavell says.

His comments come after an Education Review Office report said that many mainstream schools were not showing sufficient commitment to ensuring Maori achievement.

The stick approach needed carrots too, the Waiariki MP and former school principal said.

"From one end it could be making schools more accountable which is, I suppose, the negative way which is ... the ERO response. On the other side, what are some positive ways to incentivising for those schools who are able to pull through Maori students?"

Mr Flavell said ideas such scholarships or giving Maori students the ability to move zones to better schools, were worth exploring.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Kate Gainsford said the Government needed to get serious about professional development and resources to address the problem.

"We have seen programmes that we know succeed cut, or shied away from, because they are expensive in terms of time and money."

Auckland Girls' Grammar has initiatives targeted at Maori including a whanau unit, a Maori achievement strategy and a teacher whose specific role was to make sure the plan was working.

Principal Liz Thomson said schools had to have a plan before anything could be achieved.

KEEN TO LEARN

* 45.8 per cent of Maori students stayed at school until at least 17 and a half years, up from 40.3 per cent in 2008. This compares with 72.2 per cent for non-Maori students in 2009.
* 53.4 per cent of Maori students gained NCEA Level 3 by year 13, up from 49.9 per cent in 2002.
* More Maori are now entering tertiary education at diploma and degree level, however the group has the lowest university entrance rate at 20.1 per cent.