KEY POINTS:
It's not often a decile one boys' school is in the headlines for the right reasons, but De La Salle College should feel justifiably proud that the success of its pupils was used by the Prime Minister as an example of what could be - and should be - achieved by young men.
Helen Clark referred to De La Salle when she was making the case for raising the education age for young New Zealanders and its success in having 90 per cent of its boys leave with NCEA Level 2 when the national average is 60 per cent.
This is an achievement worth celebrating. What, asked the Prime Minister, is De La Salle doing that every school should be? Oh, that there would be a short and simple answer.
According to the principal, Brother Steve, part of the school's success can be put down to the values the school sets and maintains. for all the boys. Another reason must be that the school has embraced the Mentoring and Tutoring Education Scheme (Mates).
The programme is run by the Great Potentials Foundation in association with the University of Auckland and involves matching promising secondary students with successful uni students who mentor and tutor them. The university finds the mentors and hosts functions for the young "mentees" - and the results have been incredible.
In 2006, 121 mentors were matched with 121 mentees in 10 Auckland schools. Of those, 99 out of the 121 have taken up tertiary study - in fact, university enrolments from the Mates schools are about three times the average for lower decile schools. This programme has not come from the Ministry of Social Development but is mostly a private initiative, funded by individuals in association with the university.
Brother Steve says the trickle-down effect is that other boys see their friends succeed and want to emulate that.
One of De La Salle's Mates mentees, Jonathon Grady, received the top Mike Pero Mortgages Foundation scholarship and starts at Auckland University in a couple of weeks, aiming to be the first in his family to succeed at tertiary level. The $10,000 grant will enable him to pay for course fees, his textbooks and the daily travelling fees from Manukau to the central city and back again every day. It's not going to be easy for him, but thanks to the support from his school, his Mate, the generosity of individuals and his own hard work, he's off to a flying start.
Mates is not the only initiative that's been set up by Great Potentials and it's also not the only initiative that's been successful.
The Hippy programme has worked wonders with many families who may otherwise have been doomed to perpetuate a cycle of under-achievement. It's a two-year programme for children aged 4 and 5 and their parents. Parents work with their kids for 15 minutes a day, five days a week, 30 weeks of the year for two years on a variety of activities aimed to foster the child's development.
And, of course, there are other spin-offs - parents are involved in the process of educating their child - it's not a responsibility they hand over to a state agency. The parent-child relationship is strengthened and the parents' interest in further education is rekindled or awakened.
While bureaucrats bounce ideas off one another at Wellington dinner parties in the hills of Kelburn and Karori, (while decanting the very latest Martinborough pinot), there are people - passionate, committed, generous New Zealanders - determined to get on and start making a real difference in the lives of people who need and want help.
