Education

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 8

Education There is much evidence available to show that the Maoris are taking far more pride in the education of their children. This is reflected in the way many of them make enormous sacrifices to ensure that suitable education is given. The need for their attitude is more clearly shown when statistics revealed that in 1951, 46 per cent of European male workers in New Zealand earned more than £500 per year, but under 15 per cent of Maori male workers reached this amount. Because of this disparity in income it has always been clear to them that education in the widest sense of the word is the most powerful agent in bringing about the most successful adjustment of the people to the social and economic life of the community. The Maori children enjoy equal opportunities with European children to acquire education, and wherever possible they are educated in the same schools. Last year 40,000 Maori children or nearly ⅓rd of the population were going to school and they constituted 9.2% of the total population of the country: whereas the Maori population is 6.2% of the total New Zealand population. About 5,000 of them were going to secondary school which is a very high figure compared to that of a few years ago. While statistics show that the Maori High School pupil does not yet reach the same educational standard as his European counterpart, occasionally we read in the newspapers that in some districts real progress is being made in bridging this gap. For instance, at the Rotorua High School's prize-giving ceremony last December, the Headmaster, Mr Harwood, said that the number of Maori boys and girls collecting scholastic trophies confounded the oft-repeated statements that the Maoris could not make use of European facilities in education. Mr Harwood went on to say that he had for 34 years been in schools where there was a high percentage of Maori pupils. His answer to the criticism of the educational methods now employed to enable the Maori to use all that the European system could give him, was on the platform, where Maoris were collecting prizes for English, Latin, Mathematics and almost every other subject on the curriculum. He issued a warning that any people today who failed to take advantage of the educational opportunities to acquire an understanding of modern life, science and technology, could not keep its place in the world. He described the Maoris as a race which was emerging fast out of the world of isolation which was theirs thirty years ago into the modern world of today. From success on the playing field they were coming in to compete strongly in the classrooms. There were many Maori pupils among those who went up to collect prizes in all subjects. The two highest prizes for general excellence, in scholastic work and in short, leadership and character, both went to Maori pupils, a boy and a girl.