A NEW APPROACH TO THE MAORI CHILD

Te Ao Hou, April 1958, Page 26

Education begins at home. These two children from Papamoa Maori School (near Tauranga) are busy on a project describing their own village—the store, post office, dairy factory and so forth, and the people who work there. (Photograph J. Fijn) A NEW APPROACH TO THE MAORI CHILD by K. L. ROBERTSON, Officer for Maori Education Much has been said and written lately concerning the status of Maori people in modern society. Maori leaders are constantly urging their people forward and the Department of Maori Affairs through its various branches and activities pursues its goal of economic and social equality with the European. With his Polynesian ancestry welling up in him the Maori still doubts from time to time whether the goal is worthy of the effort he must put forth to reach it. However, the Maori has in fact already made his choice. For the last fifty years the Maori people have moved in from the periphery of European society in New Zealand to become an integral part of that society. They have left their ancestral homes for the city, and their communal life for the farm, the timber mill, transport, and public works. The Department of Education has provided special facilities through its Maori Schools Service. The first Maori Village Schools were established in 1868. With the movement of Maori population already referred to these schools became inadequate and progressively less effective as a solution of the special problems of Maori education; indeed the Maori Schools Service is catering for only 13,000 Maori children of primary school age while over 20,000 are enrolled at public schools. It was decided therefore that the time had come for a review of policy and towards the end of 1955 the Minister of Education called together a committee comprising Maori representatives from the districts and others representing teachers. Education Boards and the Department; seven of the thirteen people attending the conference were Maoris. This is important as being the first occasion on which the Maori people have had

such an opportunity of expressing their views and shared in the making of policy at the highest level. The committee now known as the “National Committee on Maori Education” met a year later in 1956, and again in October 1957. At each of these meetings matters of importance to the future of Maori Education have been dealt with. In this article no more than an outline can be given of this “new look” in Maori education. Later articles in Te Ao Hou will give fuller detail of the more important developments.