Mana Say No to Educational Failure

MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira

Friday 19 October

“Education based on failure is not what our kids need” said MANA Leader and Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira, of the Education Amendment Bill to establish charter schools which passed its first reading yesterday, “nor do they need education based on unsound theories from overseas”.

“Charter schools are supposed to help underperforming Maori and PI kids” said Harawira “but the American model they’re basing it on has a 40% dropout rate of black kids. Well guess what - if that’s the level of underachievement our government wants then why go overseas - our education system nearly meets those miserable standards for Maori and PI kids already!”

Harawira said that educational research shows that what helped poor brown kids do well in class were: smaller class sizes; good resources; well trained teachers; decent meals and free health care.

“This bill has none of that. In fact it ignores quality research in favour of unproven methods and once again it uses black children as its guinea pigs”.

“Charter schools won’t have the same standards as other schools and they won’t have to bother with parents wanting a say in who the principal will be or asking questions about how little Hone is getting on because schools will be run as a business rather than as an educational institution and headed up by a business manager rather than a trained educational professional”.

“Charter schools won’t come under the Official Information Act either, they won’t come under the scrutiny of the Ombudsman, and they will require kids to sign a contract but they won’t be accountable for the kids they kick out”.

“On the issue of teacher standards, on one hand we have government telling us ‘that the potential for negative impact on students from teachers who don’t meet the required standards is high’, and then telling us that charter schools won’t need to have qualified teachers”.

“I’m not surprised that this failed model of Coca-Cola education is coming to us courtesy of John Banks and his redneck mates in ACT” said Harawira. “The only thing I am surprised about is how quick the Maori Party was to vote for it”.

“MANA is open to innovation and to enterprise and we are willing to sit down with anyone to enhance the prospects of our children’s education but we will never support educational models that have failed black kids elsewhere”.

ENDS

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