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The state of tertiary education in New Zealand has changed dramatically over the last ten years as government policies have been modified and the economy has witnessed high employment rates. Tertiary Institutions are struggling to survive. This overview outlines my perspective on the current situation: the possibilities and the demands.
What Are the Issues?I believe that a great number of tertiary education institutes in Aotearoa-New Zealand do not know how to attract and properly cater for the potentially large population of Māori and Pacific Island students. A cursory look at the Polytechnic system clearly indicates that both the enrolment and non-completion rates for Māori students are high. The background historical reasons for the “failure” of Māori students are set out in my paper Hegemony and Education in New Zealand on this website. To counter low completion rates, TEC has introduced minimum rates as a condition for continued funding. The successes of the Wānanga in attaining high completion rates indicates that it is quite possible, yet many other tertiary institutes struggle to emulate their example. It is possible to develop programmes that appeal to previously unsuccessful students, that have high academic standards and that result in good completion rates. But the problem of enrolment and completion is not confined to Māori. Large sectors of the population believe that higher education is not for them. Either they believe that they are not capable of high academic achievement or they think that learning and education is for others, for cultural reasons. Yet, as the late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire has noted: "...this large number of people who do not read or write and who were expelled from school do not represent a failure of the schooling class; their expulsion reveals the triumph of the schooling class. In fact this misreading of responsibility reflects the school's hidden curriculum... Curriculum in the broadest sense involves not only the programmatic contents of the school system, but also the scheduling, discipline, the day-to-day tasks required from students in schools. In this curriculum, then, there is a quality that is hidden and that gradually incites rebelliousness on the part of children and adolescents. Their defiance corresponds to the aggressive elements in the curriculum that work against the students and their interests.... In fact, students are reacting to a curriculum and other material conditions in schools that negate their histories, cultures and day-to-day experiences. School values work counter to the interests of these students and tend to precipitate their expulsion from school. It is as if the system were put in place to ensure that these students pass through school and leave it as illiterates."
These individuals collectively represent a significant proportion of the potential student population. How to attract or re-attract them and help them to attain their potential is a key dilemma in the current highly competitive tertiary education field. Fiscal Downturn in EducationThe delivery of educational programmes in New Zealand tertiary education sector has become increasingly competitive over the last ten years. With the introduction of enrolment fees in the 1980s, followed by the bulk funding of educational institutions, the struggle to develop and maintain a viable and sustainable educational delivery system in the face of increasing competition has become intense. Several Polytechnics have posted significant fiscal deficits and been forced to “restructure” as student employment and study options and choices have increased. Enrolment numbers have dropped across the whole education sector, and institutions that once took their relevance and survival for granted have been forced to re-evaluate their situation. The Rise of the WanangaIn the mainstream sector, this situation was exacerbated between 2000-2005 by the emergence of the Whare Wānanga as a serious competition for Māori students. The Wānanga – particularly Te Wānanga o Aotearoa – took full advantage of Government A1-J1 funding options for Community Education to provide tuition-free courses in a wide range of Community Education programmes – most notably in Te reo Māori, Visual Arts, Performing Arts and other subject areas infused with kaupapa Māori philosophy and practice. By 2005 their enrolments had reached 35,000 students, making them the most successful tertiary institution in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Alongside them, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and Te Whare Wānanga o Raukawa also posted enormous increases in student enrolments. Awanuiārangi grew from a student intake of 400 EFTs in 2000, to almost 3000 EFTs by the end of 2004 – a 500% increase. This impacted directly on mainstream Polytechnics which generally showed a decline in student enrolments over the same period.
Community Education ProgrammesTheir own loss of enrolments was offset by taking up Te Wānanga o Aotearoaʻs example – a more emphatic focus on low-end (but non-fee-paying) Community Education programmes. Tairawhiti Polytechnic, Christchurch Polytechnic and Waiāriki Polytechnic all followed this course of action, along with many others. The result was a blowout of the Governmentʻs Education budget. The subsequent review of Community Education programmes revealed, significant “abuses” of the system – twilight golf and sing-along waiata programmes being cited specifically - and resulted in a major restructuring of the entire A1-J1 funding system, virtually eliminating the Community Education portfolio. This had a disastrous effect upon the Wānanga, who relied heavily on this funding stream to encourage young Māori and second-chance learners (mainly mature women) back into education. Awanuiārangi, was particularly affected, since it had, for the previous five years, been building capacity at the higher end of the academic scale (including Masters and PhD) in anticipation of a flow-on from its Communuity Education Courses.
The Reining in of WanangaFor Māori, the change of A1-J1 funding was devastating. For them, the Community Education programmes had represented the seed-beds of tertiary education for their constituency. Generations of Māori had failed in the mainstream system, and had come to view it with understandable suspicion. The emergence and success of the kaupapa Māori system of education upon which the Wānanga were founded had been the direct result. The undeniable success of the Wānanga clearly indicated both the failure of the existing system and the need for structural change. As such, it posed an indictment of and a real threat to the historical hegemony of compulsory education under a non-Māori set of values. It had to be reined in, and the modification of the Community Education programmes was the Governmentʻs means of doing this. One of its rationales had been that Wānanga Aotearoa had exceeded its mandate by enrolling large proportions of its students (50%) from the non-Māori community (for its Te Reo Māori programmes). The counter-argument, which I believe had great merit, was that the obvious desire of large numbers of non-Māori to learn Māori language was indicative of support for the Governmentʻs own espoused Te Re Māori policy under its Treaty of Waitangi obligations. The curtailment of the Community Education programmes in Te Reo Māori (which were the predominant domain of the Wānanga) appeared to be in direct contradiction of this official State policy. But the decision was made, and along with (and in excess of) other tertiary institutions, the Wānanga have suffered immense funding loss. To Māori, this appeared to be nothing less than a continuation of the Stateʻs historical assimilation policies, and of its ongoing denial of Māori cultural aspirations. What Can Be Learned?The good news from all of this is that there is, indeed, an apparent desire on the large part of the non-Maori culture to embrace Te Reo Māori and other aspects of Māori culture, and also that there are demonstrably large numbers of potential Māori students who would pursue further tertiary education if they felt that the mainstream system supported them. Some mainstream tertiary institutions have made significant inroads into this potential student market – notably the University of Waikato. But many more have failed to recognise that they are failing to attract large numbers of potential Māori students because either their existing programme curricula are not attractive, or because the pedagogy involved is alien to specific cultural sensitivities and perceptions. What Can Be Done?Of the Māori students that are engaged in tertiary studies, a significant number are located in Trade or Service Industry programmes rather than in programmes that might lead to management or authority roles. This has traditionally been the case in New Zealand education since its inception, despite (or perhaps because) Māori have a great resourcefulness and entrepreneurial skill.
A vivid example of this policy is to be found in the example of Te Aute College in Hawke’s Bay. Established by the missionary Samuel Williams in 1854 as a Māori secondary school. It gradually grew, until with the appointment of John Thornton as headmaster in 1878 it began to achieve academic result at or beyond those in the non-Māori world. Thornton based his model on the British Grammar Schools, and changed the curriculum to train the students for positions of leadership in politics, medicine, law and the other professions. He introduced Algebra, Greek, Physiology, Latin, Science, Chemistry, Geography, New Zealand Law and Government. His results were so successful that such notables as Apirana Ngata, Maui Pomare, Peter Buck Tutere Wirepa and Rewiti Kohere were among the illustrious graduates. In 1883, the organizing inspector of native schools praised Te Aute for the standards achieved in teaching mathematics and science as “equal to the best in the country.” Graduates from the school eventually set up the Kotahitanga (Mäori Unity) Movement which began to make its presence felt nationwide by the turn of the century.
Perhaps inevitably, (and not inconsequentially from the point of view of today’s Wänanga) by 1910, the Department of Education stepped in. Te Aute College was actively discouraged from preparing Mäori for university training and in 1931 the Director-General of Education George Hogben declared that a Māori aptitude for mathematics was interesting but not relevant to their present or future needs as agriculturalists.
We might here reflect upon the words of Freire that: "The intellectual activity of those without power is always characterised as non-intellectual."
The legacy of this and similar historical official attitudes to Māori education is the current reluctance of Māori to engage fully with a system that has traditionally been an instrument of their subordination. For mainstream institutions to attract and retain significant numbers of Māori students, they must actively design programmes that are attractive, that lead to higher levels of academic achievement and to positions of power and authority in society. These programmes must be designed to accommodate kaupapa Māori and tikanga principles and must be delivered through Māori pedagogies. More specifically, the development of an education system that is attractive to minority students in general will require a number of related strategies: Programme Research Existing Programme Evaluation Existing Programme Modification New Programme Design and Development Programme Accreditation Programme Establishment Programme Monitoring
Employment vs Entrepreneurship
While academic staff are very familiar with their fields, both they and the State agencies (NZQA and TEC) are locked into a conception of Education as the process of providing the experience to attain a job "out there" in the world - that is, to provide workers to fit the available jobs in society. At the moment there are a wide range of jobs available - hence the downturn in enrolments. The difficulty with this perspective is that it tends to limit both the eucational providers and the students with the idea that "having a job" is the ultimate goal of education, rather than as an opportunity to explore and realise oneʻs innate potential as a creative person. This latter (Critical) view sees education as the basis for making real and significant changes to the world one is growing up in - and it is this motivation that is most likely to drive minority student aspirations. The shaping of an education to realise a society of creative entrepreneurs requires a different kind of curriculum structure as well as a very different pedagogy. Few teachers within the "mainsream" Polytechnic or University systems are aware of these differences or skilled in developing them. For the most part, we have taught our students as we ourselves were taught - in lecturely ways with assignments and tests. We have continued this process without reflecting upon whether it is achieving the kinds of results we would like to see. The development of Critical Pedagogies is designed to address these issues - to transform the content and process by which we share knowledge in ways that will lead to the transformation of society, to greater equity and justice, but also to a world in which everyone is more able to reach their potential.
The Scale of the Problem The recently released Preliminary Government Survey: Attendance, Absence, and Truancy in New Zealand Schools in 2006 draws a clear picture. The Preliminary Survey reports information from 2,216 schools, encompassing had a total of 659,275 students on their rolls, representing 92% of the student population in all state and state integrated schools. The report notes that: 47% of Māori school-leavers finish school with qualifications higher than NCEA Level One; compared to a massive 74% European; 87% Asian. - 43.5 per cent of Maori men and 36.7 of Maori women have no formal qualification.
Māori females had the largest increase in truancy rates (from 5.6% in 2004 to 7.1% in 2006)
It is clear from this that Maori youth are opting out of education in increasing numbers. Add to this the fact that:
11% of the Maori workforce are unemployed as opposed to a national average of 5.1% - The most common avenues of (Maori) employment are labourers (21.2 per cent), professionals (14 per cent) technicians and trade workers (12.4 per cent) and managers (11.6 per cent).
28% of Maori over 15 are currently receiving a benefit, compared to 10.5% for the national average - the average hourly pay rate for Maori is $3 less than for non-Maori, when doing the same work
We will see that this is a problem that is beginning to impact upon the whole of New Zealand society as we become increasingly unable to meet the financial burden of future superannuities. It is important that the problem of non-achieving minority students be addressed, and increasing their enrolment and completion rates in school and in tertiary study is fundamental. The fact is that it is not the Maori or other minority students students that are failing. It is the education system that is failing, despite the significant increase in education expenditure over the last ten years. - It is failing to recognise the specific needs of Maori and other minority children
- It is failing to provide an education that is appropriate to their specific needs
- It is failing to produce develop programmes that cater to these needs
- It is failing to deliver pedagogies that are sensitive to these needs
- It is failing to produce teachers who can operate effectively in the context of minority cultures
- It is failing to produce teacher training programmes that respond to the need for culturally qualified teachers
- It is failing to train wider academics in the skills of teaching in minority cultural contexts
- It is failing to recognise or acknowledge that it is failing
Throwing money at the problem has clearly failed. Research from the University of Waikato demonstrates conclusively that the failure of Maori and minority students in the education system stems directly from the problem of poor classroom interactions. Although the University runs training programmes to sensitise teachers to the needs of these students, their effectiveness is limited because of the extensive nature of the problem. Currently, only 33 secondary schools are participating in the programme and there is considerable resistance from the secondary teachers Union to embracing its recommendations. (See Related News Item ). In general, there needs to be a much better understanding and push to address these issues not just in Secondary School (where most Maori students opt out) but across the entire education system, from Kindergarten to University. Getting minority students into tertiary study, creating programmes that are culturally appropriate for them and increasing their completion rates is possible and can improve overall economic sustainability. How Can I Find Out More? For seminars and workshops on Programme Development click here . For articles and theoretical papers on Critical Education Theory click here .
For a student-centred Training Workshop on Critical Theory or Critical Practice click here . Alternatively, if you would like to be part of an ongoing discussion group regarding Programme Development or Facilities Programming click here .
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