EDUCATION OF MAORIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22365, 12 September 1934, Page 10

EDUCATION OF MAORIS

WORK IN NATIVE SCHOOLS AIM OF THE DEPARTMENT (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September XL Recognition of the principle that the education provided by Native schools for Maori children should have some direct and sympathetic effect on the social and personal habits of the people is indicated in the annual report on the education of Native children tabled in the House of Representatives to-day. The report states that a strong effort has been made to relate the activities of Native schools to the needs of the Maori pupils. If the schools fail in making contact with the emotional side of the Maori race it is said their function becomes mechanical and abstract. It is therefore necessary to build on -what the , Maori already possesses, assimilating the best of the Maori knowledge and customs. The teachers must study the communal and social life and the music, recreations, and crafts of the people they serve. With this object in view clubs, women’s institutes, agriculture and other activities in which the adult Maori may participate, have been organised and contributions from the Maoris have been sought. Ppi dances and suitable Maori games have been included in the physical drill, weaving, carving, and taniko work among the handwork activities and Maori stories, folk-lore, and New Zealand history form the major part of the history prescription.