Cuban educators teaching reading skills to Maori

By HELEN TUNNAH deputy political editor

Cuban volunteers are teaching Maori reading and numeracy skills.

Te Wananga o Aotearoa (the University of New Zealand) is believed to have three "volunteers" from Cuba to help improve literacy rates among Maori.

Chief executive Rongo Wetere was not available yesterday, but a wananga spokeswoman confirmed that a programme with Cuban educators was under way.

"Literacy and numeracy has been identified as a major impediment to people's participation in society, and that is what the wananga is wanting to address," she said.

The Te Awamutu-based institution boasts 35,000 students, more than any other tertiary institution, and offers courses with a focus on Maori language and culture.

Overseas media reports said Mr Wetere travelled to Cuba to assess the programme. He was reported this year as saying he was afraid he might be laughed at in NZ for the initiative.

"We're really indebted to Cuba for providing these three women to work together for us," he said.

It is not clear who pays the costs of the volunteers, but Mr Wetere reportedly said the bill was being picked up by Cuba.



Act MP Rodney Hide yesterday said he was "staggered" that Cubans were assisting a New Zealand programme.

"I wouldn't be looking to Cuba to succeed in anything. Cuba's a basketcase," he said.

Maori activist Annette Sykes is a supporter of the project, according to an exchange of emails released by Mr Hide.

She declined to discuss project details yesterday, referring queries to the institution.

However, her email said Maori were determined to develop models of development that met their needs.

She said there might be burgeoning Maori education initiatives, but there was "no qualitative framework consistent with our philosophies".

A Havana news report said Cuban Education Ministry advisers were in New Zealand to help with a radio and television literacy campaign. The project would last three or four months.

Cuba, it said, had helped eliminate illiteracy in Latin America.

However, Cuban leader Fidel Castro's revolutionary regime is also known for jailing and torturing writers and poets.

Mr Hide said Cuba might have have been able to teach people to read, but it had not done well in putting food on the table for its citizens.

"Their programme is not to teach people to read to free them. The only thing they get to read is what a great man Castro is.

"People are climbing on boats to get out of it. That's not the model that we want for New Zealand in any way, shape or form."

Te Wananga o Aotearoa has been criticised in the past over the relevance and quality of its courses.