Special Training To Teach Maoris

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31329, 28 March 1967, Page 14

Special Training To Teach Maoris

(New Zealand Preet Association)

AUCKLAND, March 27.

Student teachers want special training in the teaching of children of Polynesian descent.

In the last day of a threeday conference in Auckland

the council of the Student Teachers’ Union agreed today that the preparation of student teachers to teach children who had little knowledge of English was inadequate. The conference decided to urge education authorities throughout New Zealand to introduce into training colleges: 1. Polynesian studies. 2. Courses in the teaching of English. It was pointed out that only one in every five children of

Polynesian descent attended a Maori school.

Not Specialised With the proposed abolition of the schools there would be about 80,000 such children who received little specialised educational help. Constituent .members were asked to present reports to be combined into one report with recommendations for presentation to the next conference in May. Copies of the report will be sent to the Minister of Education, the Education Department, each training college, the Maori Education Foundation and other authorities.