Why do our schools fail the majority of Maori children?

Tu Tangata, Issue 36, 1 June 1987, Page 21

Why do our schools fail the majority of Maori children?

HE MATAURANGA

While you read these lines thousands of Maori children attending New Zealand schools are being subjected to a ten year process of schooling that very effectively and efficiently atrophies their potential growth as people. It degrades their culture and denies them the life fulfilment and expectations that most concerned pakeha parents expect and demand for their children.

If this statement is disturbing to readers a cursory glance at official statistics will confirm the above allegation viz. early school leavers, state examination results, tertiary education graduates, crime, unemployment, home ownership and health statistics. Should one discuss this tragic waste of human potential with a hundred pakeha, almost inevitably one hears a hundred variant put explanations and theories why this situation continues to blight so many young lives. Put the question to school principals, teachers, politicians, employers, lay people, and the answers will range from inherent laziness, lack of motivation, deprived or disadvantaged home backgrounds, language deficiencies to dare one mention it! “perhaps Maori students are intellectually inferior to pakeha students

. . . and intelligence tests do seem to support this.” The principal of one of our most well known secondary schools, John Graham is quite certain he has the answer to the lack of school success on the part of so many Maori pupils.

“The reason Maoris are failing is because they are lazy. But it wouldn’t make any difference whether exam papers were printed in Maori because that’s not the point. They ’re just lazy. If you attack a system because one section can’t handle it, for God’s sake look at the section rather than the system. N.Z. Times, February 12, 1984

This man, the principal of Auckland Grammar epitomises the lack of understanding that characterises so many people claiming to be educationists and his shallow sophistry smacks of the entrenched racism of the early colonists. He should know better. Unfortunately

he is not alone in his views and there are so many people in influential positions offering solutions to mass failure in terms of the inherent defects of children and see little to criticise in the education system itself. Over the last century the Education Department has quite deliberately, albeit legally, followed the assimilation policy established by the 1867 Native Schools Act and J. M. Barrington writing in 1985 states: “The assimiliation policy had been ruthless in its repudiation of the indigenous culture attempting to divorce the Maori from every aspect of his culture, and had been exemplified by the complete abolition of all things Maori from the scheme of education”. Ed Dept system to blame This policy has over the past decades been somewhat modified, and we have seen the tentative insertion into the curriculum of such pakeha perceived solutions as Taha Maori and Maoritanga in those schools opting to introduce them. However, after a lifetime of teaching, lecturing and working as a Departmental Inspector I categorically blame the Education Department and its education system for the continued mass failure of Maori children. During my seventeen years as inspector of schools one question troubled me greatly: What does the education system do to Maori children that causes so many of them to fail? My phrasing of

the question is quite deliberate, and I totally reject any view that lays the blame for failure on the child. From birth to school-age the great majority of children are bright-eyed and confident about themselves, and any causes of failure should be sought among external societal influences. Over the years I observed hundreds of teachers teaching in as many classrooms, some with predominantly Maori pupils and others containing only one or two. During teacher/inspector interviews I have asked teachers many questions: their views of the educational needs of Maori children, why so many drift into the low-achievement groups even in the junior school, the possible causes of this, why so many continue to fill the lowest places in educational statistics and leave school disillusioned, angry, feeling worthless or ‘dumb’, to face possible unemployment, prison or at best a low-paid, low-status job. Problem not of school’s making The great majority of teachers are caring dedicated people, but their answers revealed a common view that the system or schools are not at fault, that the real “problem” of Maori failure was “something”, some “conditions”, or some “deficiency” inherent in the newly enrolled child; perhaps a “language deficiency” or a “lack of pre-school experiences”. Other teachers felt that the Maori pupils is “poorly motivated to

learn”, his/her “attention span is short”, and some unfortunately displayed quite racist views, implying that minority ethnic groups in New Zealand “seem to be less intelligent”, as shown by their “low scores on intelligence and other scholastic tests”. All these rationalizations conveniently exonerated the educational system, the school and teachers from any blame for the mass failure that occurs despite the extensive research and literature available that repudiates such views. Although teachers express concern for lowachieving Maori children the great majority of them seem to have an irreversible mental set that the “problem” is not of the school’s making, and that the school does its best to overcome the “problem”. Many schools introduced Maoritanga (Maori cultural arts) and Taha Maori (Maori dimension) hoping to improve selfesteem and raise levels of achievement, but unless this is done with sensitivity and sincerity there is a distinct possibility that Maori parents may interpret the move as patronising tokenism by well intentioned monocultural pakehas.

A Maori five-year old new entrant enters a rather frightening new world when he/she is ushered into the hurly burly of his/her first classroom. The majority of teachers are middle class and monocultural, know little of “things Maori” consider pakeha culture to be superior to Maori culture, speak only English and do not consider the Maori language to be very important. Many have low expectations for Maori pupils and hold “deficit” views of Maori children’s competence in the English language, intelligence and home environment.

System euro-centric in origin The majority of policy statements emanating from the Department of Education describe the Maoris as an educational “problem” and it is little wonder when the system is totally defined by pakeha objectives, pakeha controlled, pakeha administered and essentially euro-centre in origin. The much vaunted idealogical objective of “equality of educational opportunity” is a hollow myth in a system so obviously favouring middle-class pakeha children. During the last two decades the traditional curriculum has grudgingly incorporated some elements of Maoritanga or taha Maori but these have never become policy, and simply remain as “optional extras” to be included in the school programme at the whim of the principal. As an inspector I was never expected nor encouraged to promote either Maoritanga or taha

Maori, and Advisers in Maori education operate in schools by invitation only. Similarly the itinerant teachers of Maori are permitted to work in schools by grace and favour of the principal, and some schools flatly refuse to allow any Maori culture to be included in the school programme.

The Education Department demands compliant docility from its departmental officers, and comes down very heavily on any subordinate brave or foolish enough to criticize policy, yet it seems quite callous and insensitive to the mass failure of Maori children, and in this regard gives little direct leadership to the schools. When external pressure becomes sufficiently strong it shifts ground reluctantly and minimises (with “delicate phrases”) and the extent to which the status quo is disturbed. The Kohanga Reo movement is a good example of the departmental monolith being prodded by impatient Maori mothers who had become exasperated by its detachment and indifference. Provoked into reacting, the department is at last training eleven teachers in Maori language and culture for one year at Hamilton Teachers College. This is little comfort to the parents of thousands of Kohanga Reo children who after becoming quite proficient in the Maori language and culture, are entering the state schools where the prevailing milieu is mono-linguistic, mono-cultural in the European tradition, and minimally sensitised to react sympathetically to the needs of Maori children. It is any wonder many frustrated Maori parents are threatening to establish alternative schooling? Is it any wonder the Waitangi Tribunal is sceptical of the Department’s record as regards the mass failure of Maori children. In its latest report to the Minister of Maori Affairs (June 1986) it states:

“It (the Department’s record) is a dismal failure and no amount of delicate phrasing can mask that fact . . . How can it be that the Department’s philosophy and practice in educating children accords so closely with the aspirations and desires of the Maori people as described to us, and yet the results of its application be the object of such trenchant and bitter criticism” (p 43).

A time-bomb ranked society T. K. Royal, a former departmental officer, speaking on the Orongomai Marae said: “The present education system is a time bomb a ranked society perpetuating a ranked society, a racist reality. The system is the greatest cause of our social disharmony because it labels people as failures ’ ’ Tu Tangata 27/12/85.

During the seventeen years with the Education Department I became increasingly disillusioned with any employing authority as a rigidly hierarchical, authoritarian bureaucracy more concerned with its own power structures than children, and concealing its inadequate policies with an emanation of statements couched in “delicate phrasing”. There is an urgent need for a complete philosophical purification and structural remodelling of the department if we are to see an end to the injustices being done to Maori children by the system. The present Minister of Education suggests that change within the system is necessary when he stated publicly: “. . . No one in their right mind says Maori students are less intelligent than pakehas. There is obviously something wrong with the system the structure is wrong. . . ” Evening Post, 2 Oct 1985

Jack Ennis, the author of this article about the failure of our schools regarding Maori pupils spent 17 years as an Inspector in N.Z. schools. When presented with this article, Tu Tangata asked Mr Ennis why he took so long to say anything about the shocking state of N.Z. schools. He says it was only after some years and a two year stay overseas that it hit him between the eyes. His return to this country made him aware of the enormity of the problem. He says he particularly saw the emphasis on failure in the Porirua district and tried to change

things by calling the school heads together. However he acknowledges it’s a big one and hence this article. Ed. He korero na tetahi rangatira i mahi ai i te Tari Matauranga mo nga tau tekau ma whitu. Ko Jack Ennis ia. I tana wa e mahi ana, kei te ata titiro ia kite kore tautoko i nga take Maori kei roto i nga Kura o te motu. Koenei ona whakaaro i runga i tenei kaupapa, ara he pehea te akona o nga matauranga Maori kite rangatahi whanui i te motu.