Category: Education
The role of the neo-tribal Māori elite in promoting Māori Science has been crucial to the subject’s success. A relatively small, carefully selected grouping of those deemed to be “in the know” came to define what Māori Science was to be about and what it should include. They were able to achieve this with minimal input from the community they claimed to represent.
The period from the mid-1980s through until the mid-1990s in New Zealand witnessed the rapid acceptance of Māori science as an equal partner under the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi with what was to become specified and thereafter denigrated as “Western” science.
The cultural takeover has now reached the point where grassroots New Zealand needs to again be mobilised. We need to send a strong message to central government that New Zealanders have had enough. We can do that in a number of ways, but the most urgent is to vote “No” to Maori wards in the October local body elections.
How has it come to pass that even an English-style “prep” school is in such obvious denial of its own heritage? What kind of societal pressure has led to such a school’s adopting a false Maori “persona”? And what does this signify in terms of the direction in which our country is heading?
While the education reforms now being introduced by the Coalition, to overhaul the curriculum and the law will improve standards and give Kiwi kids a better opportunity to build decent lives for themselves, it remains unacceptable that provisions are being left in the legislation to empower He Puapua and race-based rule.
The Minister of Education, Erica Stanford is determined to introduce a knowledge rich curriculum for all New Zealand students. It is a standardised curriculum which ensures that students across the country receive the same high-quality knowledge consisting of academic subjects with content selected for its value and justified for its veracity.
The cause of the problem we face is, of course, the inexorable rise in expenditure on super and healthcare as our population ages. While we currently have around 800,000 retirees, by 2061 this number is expected to approach 2 million. At that time the number of workers per pensioner will fall from around four to one today, to just two to one.
Competition is just as important in government as it is in private sector markets. The lack of competition, over the past 80 years, in government-owned social service institutions, is why they are in such a mess today, when compared to say Singapore’s welfare institutions.
What happened in Britain should be a warning to our Coalition. The euphoria of hope after their election win is fading as supporters question whether the promised reforms will be delivered. Their concerns are over their lack of headway in reversing He Puapua.
If Sir Roger is right in his prediction that none of the existing political parties will support the proposed reforms because they don’t want to relinquish their tight-fisted grip on power, then we will need an army of Kiwis who are prepared to help us create the momentum we will need for a change of this scale...
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