Mixing Of Maoris Urged

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31557, 20 December 1967, Page 1

Mixing Of Maoris Urged

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 19.

Small Maori schools no longer serve a useful function and something should be done immediately about consolidation with European schools, says the headmaster of the Kaeo District High School (Mr A. S. Batty) in his annual report.

Mr Batty says that Maori children should mix with European children long before the form three level. “In our search for the causes of apparent backwardness of Maori pupils we icome at once to the language problem,” says Mr Batty. “We have frequently discovered that children of even 'seven or eight years have no

English word for quite common everyday things.

“Children such as these speak neither English nor Maori at home but a sort of

pidgin mixture of both languages,” he says.

“We have found that the younger we can get our Maori children into classes with European children, the more chance we have of overcoming the language problem. “You will appreciate exactly what I mean about trying to remedy language problems at the secondary level when I tell you that over the past 13 years to my knowledge not one single pupil that has come to us in form three from certain Maori schools in the area has passed school certificate. ‘ln the case of one particular school, no child has ever got to the stage of even sitting for the examination.”