1986 Adult Education Award announced

Tu Tangata, Issue 29, 1 April 1986, Page 31

1986 Adult Education Award announced

The 1986 Commonwealth Relations Trust Bursary in Adult Education has been awarded to Mr Kuao Wawatai, Director of the Te Puke o Tara Community Centre in South Auckland. He is the first Maori adult educator to win the award. The Commonwealth Relations Trust Award is made annually through the National Council of Adult Education to the applicant who is best able to communicate effectively with colleagues and might be in a position to influence opinion in New Zealand. Mr Wawatai was appointed to his current position in 1979, having previously headed the Maori Studies Department at Mangere College. He has been instrumental in bringing about changes of emphasis in the operation of the Te Puke o Tara Centre, helping to achieve self-sufficiency and incorporating an adult education programme. Mr Wawatai is fully involved in community affairs. He is a Manukau City Councillor and Deputy Chairman of its Community Development Committee. He is also a member of the Manukau

Technical Institute Council, being Chairman of its Education Committee, Nursing Advisory Council and Maori Advisory Council. He is also a member of the Auckland Education Board and a Justice of the Peace. Mr Wawatai gained a Commonwealth Secretariate Fellowship to Northern India in 1981 to study youth development. He intends to take up the Commonwealth Relations Trust Bursary in May of this year, hoping to make contact with adult and continuing education organisations in Britain with regard to attitude or policy developments in relation to ethnic groups. He wishes to also examine leadership patterns among ethnic groups, and the degree of determination such persons may have to access resources; the provision of learning experiences and courses appropriate to minority culture needs as well as strategies to initiate change which will lead to an improved quality of lifestyle for those peoples. Upon his return, Mr Wawatai will share his overseas experience with colleagues and those concerned with the issues he has studied.