Opportunity For Maoris ‘Unequal’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 1

Opportunity For Maoris ‘Unequal’

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 9. Equal vocational opportunities did not exist for Maoris, the Educational Institute was told at its annual meeting in Wellington today.

Interviews with staffing managers of large city stores and firms, Maori vocational guidance officers, head teachers, and ministers of religion had shown that opportunities for Maoris were restricted said the institute’s Maori education committee. The reasons were given as employer and customer prejudice, insufficient educational qualifications, reluctance or inability of Maoris to make the necessary cultural and sociological changes, lack of vocational ambition and a tendency not to make longterm plans, and vocational mobility on the part of Maoris. “Through lack of guidance or interest on the part of some schools, Maori pupils often take inappropriate courses and leave schools too early,” said the report. It was recommended that intermediate and secondary school* should Investigate

methods of streaming children by subject strength, rather than on general academic ability. “No one can justify a Maori being appointed just because he is a Maori. "Similarly, no one can justify an employer failing to promote a Maori employee just because he is a Maori. “In spite of the difficulties, it is essential that Maori vocational aspirations become more diversified. “It is just as essential to bring pressures on employers to alter some patterns of appointment and promotion. “However unpalatable thia may be, the future co-opera-tion of Maori and pakeha a* New Zealanders depends largely on finding ways of breaking through this difficulty. “It will not be done without some hurt to individuals —particularly Maoris,” said the report