Cyberwaka will help youngsters stay home

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE

It is a long way from the big smoke, but a new computer training centre is bridging the digital divide in one New Zealand's more remote settlements, the East Coast settlement of Te Kaha, 65 kms from Opotiki.

There, a computer room is humming on the site of a former "native" school built in the 1870s.

The Cyberwaka Enterprises Networking Academy has been set up in a room equipped with laptop computers and satellite facilities overlooking Maraetai Bay. Volcanic White Island puffs in the background.

Up behind the former school on State Highway 35 is Te Whanau-a-Apanui Area School, and its senior students will be among the first to benefit from the academy's vocational training course, which is designed to prepare them for life in the 21st century.

"It's going to be brilliant, "said enthusiastic principal Nehumoana Gage yesterday.

The initiative means the district's young people will not have to leave their home for similar tertiary and university courses.

The area school has a roll of 168, of whom 55 are at secondary level. Two of those who will now have new educational and job opportunities despite living in an economically depressed area are Miria Wairua, aged 13 and Tatana Swinton, 11. They are almost as excited as their headmaster.

With 15 computers at the area school, they already have a grounding in the new technology and say they are looking forward to learning more.

Cyberwaka Enterprises was set up by the Runanga O Te Whanau tribal authority to ensure its young people will benefit from the growth of the "knowledge economy."

The brainchild of Rikirangi Gage, chief executive officer of the authority and cousin of Mr Gage, the programme is a joint venture between the East Coast tribe and the Pacific Islands Matati E Fa Trust based in Auckland.

The Te Kaha academy is the 10th in New Zealand to be initiated by Cisco Systems.