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Debate is raging over a controversial plan to give Maori a free pass into universities.
Maori Party co-leader and Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples says university culture remains foreign to many Maori and he wants a more Maori-friendly teaching style.
He is proposing Maori enter university without the required qualifications .
Jacqualene Poutu from the National Maori Tertiary Students Association told Breakfast they "support the idea, as it is in line with the Maori Party's plan to open doors for Maori in education".
Poutu says important areas have been highlighted by the plan, and that increased numbers of Maori at university would be of benefit to New Zealand society as a whole and that the plan "highlights access issues for Maori students".
She says the plan is "not a Maori hand-out", but that it's about "addressing the wider issues of New Zealand's social and economical disparity.
"We need a strong institutional support structure, so institutions can revive Maori students," she says.
However not everyone is optimistic about the proposal.
Maori academic Paul Moon says he understands the idea behind giving Maori easy access to university, but that there are serious flaws in it.
Moon says international research shows consistently that the reason people succeed at university is largely because of the home environment where education is valued.
Moon also says Maori are a growing group at universities, and says opening the floodgates would only penalise the students themselves.
He says the rapid growth of Maori at university is a very positive sign.
NCEA students studying hard for university are also not impressed by the plan.
North Shore NCEA student Connor McLay says such a policy would be unfair and will not do Maori any favours.
McLay says he has to study hard to get his NCEA qualifications, and that should be the case for everyone.
Just 7% of varsity graduates are Maori and fewer Maori secondary students make it to university than any other ethnicity.
What do you think of the plan? Fair or outraged? Share on our message board below:
Add a Comment:
Post new commentkatherine1992 said on 2009-06-25 @ 17:38 NZDT: Report abusive post
As a Maori student in my final year at a highly regarded, catholic, girls school on the North Shore you can imagine the frustration I felt as I heard Pita Sharples comment. Admittedly school is tough and takes a lot of hard work, yet compared with Uni, it's simple. Therefore if people can't handle the structure or the work load now, fast tracking them to Uni is only going to set them up for further failure.
wakatu said on 2009-06-19 @ 06:42 NZDT: Report abusive post
Employers will view Maori with university degrees the same as those with Maori passports, suspect. Makes a mockery of striving for success.
natg said on 2009-06-19 @ 04:10 NZDT: Report abusive post
Wow. It upsets me that all of us can see the clear faults in this, yet people in Government (who are meant to lead us) fail to. If we let Maori into university without UE then it will create many problems. For one, people will look at ALL Maori students around campus and think "that person probably hasn't made it through 5th form when I had to work my ass off" even if the Maori invidual had achieved straight excellences in highschool. It's bad. Very bad.
joeyblogs said on 2009-06-18 @ 23:03 NZDT: Report abusive post
This is outright racist. This is not the way forward for maori and equality. There should be no special rights for maori, not at all, nor anyone else. Not just this, but Maori seats in parliament etc... Equality is where everyone has equal rights, maori or pakeha should be irrelevant.
UP2DATE said on 2009-06-18 @ 18:51 NZDT: Report abusive post
Well done Dr. Sharples! Just when I was thought you might be the leader Maori have been in desperate need of. Get real. Kiwi's are kiwi's... T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R