More money for educating Maoris sought

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 15

More money for educating Maoris sought

PA Wellington Maoris should get a greater share of the education budget, an educationist, Dr Richard Benton, told the Waitangi Tribunal. Dr Benton said it cost less to educate the average Maori than the average nonMaori because they left school earlier. If the same amount of money was allocated per head to be spent simply on education, disregarding level, more money could be injected into educating Maori children at the lower end of the school. This would lay a solid foundation which would increase the future chances of Maori children making it through to the higher realms. Dr Benton said that as well as redistributing education funds, the Maori people would have to be

given a greater say in how those funds would be spent. Bilingual schools were vital if the Maori language was to survive. At present there were eight official bilingual schools, which catered for 800 children — 1 per cent of Maori children. Frustration at the slow changes within the education system had led some Maori parents to enrol their children at alternative schools where their needs were better met. Dr Benton said it was true the Education Department was making efforts to cope with the situation. Making Maori an official language would make its task easier because it would then be obliged to offer bilingual education. “That would make it easy to justify the allocation of resources needed for these obligations to be fulfilled,” he said.