I think as a pakeha parent who put his pakeh child into Māori immersion education, that I have a unique perspective on the NCEA debate.
I believed that my daughter as a Kiwi should know the first culture of her birth nation and could speak the mother tongue of this land.
I have to admit to you all right now, nothing makes me feel more connected to being a New Zealander than when my daughter does a karakia at my own table before we eat.
I’m in no way a religious person, but I can appreciate the beauty of a Māori prayer as much as I can be in awe of the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel or eloquence of poetry in the Quran.
My daughter’s Māori education culture is built upon communal values instead of the competitive pakeha educational values, and that’s why I’m worried about the NCEA changes, because I’m only seeing blunt force trauma here, rather than excellence of social policy.
Education matters, there are very few silver bullets to the multitude of problems we face as a society, but Education is as good as we get to having a real solution to the woes our communities are swamped by.
As Education Academic Professor Welby Ings argues, Public Education has an obligation to help every child who comes through it, not fail them!
I believe our education system has an obligation to create critical thinking citizens, not worker drones!
The NCEA changes seem driven primarily by Gen X parents and Boomer Grandparents who don’t understand the report cards.
I am deeply concerned that Erica Stansford is taking advice on the NCEA changes from those with highly questionable racial perspectives.
One of those advisors noted to Stanford last year that an aim in rewriting Education policy should be “ending decolonization’s success” .
That you have advisors to the Minister specifically wanting to counter decolonization is an extreme perspective and the Minister hasn’t distanced themselves from those views.
I fear that we will see yet another Right wing experiment in public education while re-asserting colonization!
Comments are closed.