REAP grown well in two years

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 266, 6 December 1988, Page 16

REAP grown well in two years

R.E.A.P. (Rural Education and Activities Programme) is a national education programme to encourage more involvement of the community with ongoing education.

This programme is aimed at people from all walks of life and sets out to understand the needs of students in country schools. Ruapehu College has played a large part in the organisation of rural education and R.E.A.P. in and around the Waimarino year. The activities at the college have ranged from beginner typing to making chocolates,

from sporting skills to sixth form certificate, from biology and English to learning t o read. There are seminars and educational programmes on all the time with activities for the elderly down to students who want to learn about a particular subject. Ms Eliz Mortland told the Bulletin last week about her involvement with

R.E.A.P. and what it entails. The programme started about three years ago and has grown into a large exercise which is based in Taihape. Eliz is the full-time organisation officer for R.E.A.P. which means she has to go to e v e r y R.E.A.P. meeting in Taihape, Ohakune and Raetihi. She organises and starts groups and activities helping for the first few meetings. The groups then go off on their own and organise themselves. The programme is

funded mostly by the Department of Education with some funded by the community. Eliz said that in all the areas where R.E.A.P. is working they need a lot more support from the community. This may be because the courses aren't what the community wants but if there is something the community wants to know a bit more about all they have to do is make contact, she said. There has not been a great demand from Ohakune in the past. Some courses people want may be hard to

set up and may cost a lot of money so organisers shouldn't take gambles on how much money to spend or on the popularity of a course, said Ms Mortland. R.E.A.P. would like to have greater involvement in the Maori community, especially in parenting courses and special courses for men and women, she said. The person to contact in Ohakune or Raetihi for information on R.E.A.P. is Bev Kerr.

by

Tania

Watters