June 30, 2015
Maori place in tertiary education
Maori involved in tertiary education will gather in Otautahi next week to discuss ways to make the sector more receptive to Maori students and learning.
Ngahiwi Apanui from Ako Aotearoa says the annual hui has become an important clearing ground for ideas about encouraging Maori success in tertiary education.
He says the Lincoln University hui will look at innovations in the south such as Ngai Tahu’s trade training and its partnership with tertiary institutions through its Nga Tapuwae o Rehua initiative.
Mr Apanui says while Maori educators once assumed that if a Maori space were created, Maori would come there, they now realise more needs to be done.
"What we’ve found in the tertiary sector is that is not always the case, that the bulk of Maori learners won’t be sitting in front of Maori teachers, they will actually be sitting in front of non-Maori teachers. That’s the issue for use, how do we get those non-Maori spaces to cater for our people in a more effective way, get them used to working with our learners, their whanau, our people, because I think kura kuapapa has shown us quite clearly that is the direction to take," he says.
Ngahiwi Apanui says many Maori students come back to university in their late 20s or 30s to catch up on the education they didn’t get at secondary school, so they have challenges many other students don’t face.
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