September 14, 2014
Sharples backing kura over charter
Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says he’d rather see more kura kaupapa Maori opening than charter schools.
Education Minister Hekia Parata has approved four more privately-owned, publicly funded partnership schools, including a kaupapa Maori Steiner school to open at Nga Whare Waatea in Mangere next February.
She is touting them as one way to tackle Maori and Pacific Island educational under-achievement.
Dr Sharples says the kura kaupapa Maori he pioneered within the state system, including the one where his stepson and Maori Party candidate Te Hira Paenga went to school, are already doing that.
" You know I would have preferred that they would have set up a straight kura kaupapa Maori because if you listen to some of the graduates like Te Hira (Paenga) himself you've got to say that is great. A good knowledge, good capacity to debate and Maori is his first language but there's nothing wrong with his english. So I would have thought that was the ideal model actually that we've invented. A kura Maori or a kura a iwi or kura kaupapa Maori " says Dr Pita Sharples.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH PITA SHARPLES CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjIwNDU=
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