Survivors of Mallard axe feel the loss

By ALAN PERROTT education reporter

Waikare School has survived the Ministry of Education cull of Northland schools, but there was no sign of celebration yesterday.

"How would we feel if the minister came here and said we had to close our school?" Max Thompson asked his class of pre-teens.

"We have the rest of our lives to talk about our future, but this is the time to think of the schools who are not as fortunate as ourselves."

The picture-postcard school has sat in the midst of the Maori community at the end of the Waikare Inlet, southeast of Russell, since 1876.

It is one of only five historic schools to have emerged unscathed from the review of 18 Northland schools being undertaken by Education Minister Trevor Mallard.

The remainder face either closure or fundamental change through a series of inter-school mergers which were unveiled at an emotion-charged meeting at Kawakawa School on Monday night.

The proposals are part of Mr Mallard's 11th and 12th network reviews in the past year. The Government has so far identified more than 90 schools nationwide for closure.

The boards of the nine schools facing closure or merger will meet this week to investigate any means of avoiding their fate.

Through his children, Ken Brown can claim four generations of contact with Orauta School.

The school is west of Kawakawa on land gifted by the Ngati Hine, a hapu which stands to lose three rural schools through the review.

Orauta was where Mr Brown was taught and where his grandparents were whipped for speaking their own language.

Gaining control of the school and the manner in which their children were taught would help remedy the pain inflicted on generations of past students, he said, and warned that the community would stubbornly resist any move to close the school.

Darlia Walker, principal and past pupil of Te Kura o Matawaia, fears for the future of the tiny community.

"There was resistance to this school as something the European was bringing in, but the people got used to it and embraced it. Now it is being ripped away again.

"How can the Government do that to people?"

Her staff are stunned, but not surprised by the axe hanging over their school.

The lack of jobs has caused many families to move to the cities and the roll has plummeted to seven.

Waikare School has survived through community commitment and favourable geography.

Gravel roads have maintained its isolation and uniqueness, while nearby coastal developments have also meant jobs.

This has kept many families in the area, who have become willing helpers in the school's move toward a total Maori immersion curriculum.

"We did look at mergers with other schools," said Mr Thompson. "But these are tight communities and our kids would be seen as the Waikare kids coming on the Waikare bus with the stigma attached to that.

"For us, keeping this school means that when our kaumatua are not here in 40 or 50 years, there will be descendants here ready to fill their shoes."