Chch Maori course may close

Press, 20 November 1987, Page 3

Chch Maori course may close

A shortage of Maori language teachers could be compounded because numbers for Te Atakura Maori language courses next year have been halved, says the Post Primary Teachers’ Association. In schools, Te Atakura teachers teach Maori language, help with taha Maori programmes, and offer counselling and support to Maori students. Te Atakura was run this year at several teachers’ colleges, including Christchurch. With the halving of teacher numbers nationally from 40 to 20, the Christchurch course is also believed to be under threat. A Christchurch course was needed, given the growing interest of South Island schools in Maori, said the P.P.T.A. president, Mr Peter Allen. The principal of Christchurch Teachers' College, Dr Colin Knight, said the college would be sorry not to have the course next year, because the very senior members of the Maori community who were involved had had a beneficial effect on the whole college.

Te Atakura trainees had been initially chosen by the Maori elders, and then finally selected by the P.P.T.A, the Education Department, and the Secondary School Boards’ Association.

Mr Allen said the September staffing survey had revealed a national shortage of 20 Maori lanT

guage teachers, and there was no sign that the shortage would be eased next year. Mr Allen said he believed Te Atakura cutbacks had been made partly because of the difficulties in finding jobs faced by this year’s graduates. Mr Allen said the Education Department should have done more to explain the scheme’s aims to schools. One of the Christchurch graduates will join the staff of Avonside Girls’ High School next year. The school’s principal, Miss Helen Williams, said she was pleased, as Avonside had advertised all year for a Maori teacher, and had not received a reply. The school had had the help this year of a Maori parent who also had some university training in Maori. The guidance which Te Atakura teachers could offer, and the way in which they could reach out into a school’s Maori community was important, Miss Williams said. “We wrote to the Education Department in Wellington because we were distressed to understand that the course would not be continued here next year. ‘While we accept that there is a great need in the North Island, we believe that more schools would be interested if greater advertising had let them know it was available.”