When Success Becomes a Serious Threat
Sir Toby Curtis has made a plea to all New Zealanders to stand up and speak out against the napalming of charter schools in New Zealand at the behest of the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins.
We certainly wish to stand with Sir Toby and join him in speaking out. Sir Toby Curtis chaired the Iwi Education Authority for tribal immersion schools, was instrumental in establishing Māori broadcasting, and served on the Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua Authorisation Board. He has had a good deal to do with New Zealand's "toe in the water" introduction of charter schools in New Zealand.
We will reproduce his appeal to Hapless Hipkins:
My preference as a Māori would be to discuss the Government's unilateral decision to close partnership schools Kura Hourua, kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) with them. However, the Government denied us that opportunity. It is my fervent hope that through this medium, the Minister of Education might be appraised of the concerns I raise on behalf of many Māori.
In a few days' time a colleague and I will meet the Education Select Committee in support of our submission opposing the closure of these schools and the kura hourua model. But even before the Committee has heard submissions, the minister has terminated the contracts of 10 of the schools.
To compound the injustice, the Government has silenced the schools by holding over them the prospect of joining another state school status. The arrogance of this is breathtaking. These are schools where hundreds of Māori students are experiencing educational success, some for the first time in their lives.
The large majority of the kura are being run by Māori for Māori, some by Pasifika for Pasifika. All have close relations with their whanau and families who send their children there. Sometimes that's the first time a family has had the chance to make a considered choice about their child's education, and it's the beginning of becoming empowered.
Some of the schools are providing classes for whanau and parents to help them learn how to support their tamariki with their school work. The kids, some of whom had dropped out of school, are going to school and are eager to learn. Iwi have actively invested in the schools.
In my role on the authorisation board for the schools, I've visited every one of them.
