12:46 PM |
Mixed educational results for NZ Pacific Island students
Updated
There is good news and bad news about how well Pacific island schoolchildren are doing in New Zealand. A joint report from the country's Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and Statistics Department shows that more Pacific schoolchildren are finishing high school than ever before. In fact the number of Pacific students leaving high school with at least level two on the national certificate of educational achievement has leapt from 42 per cent in 2003 to 68 per cent in 2008.
That means they are well ahead of Maori on 50 per cent and closing fast on Pakeha with 75 per cent. But the study shows only 13 per cent of Pacific young people aged 18 to 19 are studying for a university degree, compared with 27 per cent of Pakeha. Bruce Hill asked Dr Colin Tukuitonga, CEO of New Zealand's Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs why there's such good news at the high school level, but bad when it comes to university study.
Bruce Hill
Speaker: Dr Colin Tukuitonga, CEO of New Zealand's Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
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TUKUITONGA: Well we think it's a combination of things. We think clearly the problem starts in early childhood centres, not enough are getting early childhood education and not enough are getting quality childhood, so it sort of goes back to that. Like most things, it is of course very complex, probably a combination of not enough parental family expectation and schools not doing as well as they ought to.
HILL: What about Pacific Island kids getting into higher education? I understand that 27 per cent of Pakeha young people aged 18 to 19 are studying for a Bachelors degree, but that's only 13 per cent for Pacific students. Why are they not getting to university in the large numbers that people would want?
TUKUITONGA: Well again, I think it is I suppose a jargon as it is a pipeline problem. They seem to get enough encouragement at secondary school and they don't tend to the right subjects and so they end up with lower end pre-degree type at the tertiary level, so that is what we think is happening.
HILL: Why does that happen? Are the teachers looking at them and going oh, you will do more vocational stuff or are they expecting to do that themselves or is it the parents? Do the parents not want them to be doctors, lawyers, accountants that sort of thing?
TUKUITONGA: Well, we're told that parents clearly have an expectation that their young ones become doctors and lawyers and if they are not doctors and lawyers, they frown on the trade, even though there has been quite a lot of work informed parents. Clearly these sort of families don't tend to ask enough of their teachers about how their young ones are doing. They don't tend to participate and the governance and the running of the school, so there is all of that. But we understand also from the education review office statistics that only about 14, 15 per cent of schools are actually teaching young ones effectively in school...so there is clearly work to do in supporting the teachers in schools and the fact that they are turning up at school, but they are not learning or not learning enough or learning the right things. Just because they are at school does not mean they are learning.
We don't have the information to say there's race. It's probably social economic. Our own schools tend to be in the poor areas of Auckland and of New Zealand and generally that is where Pacific families tend to congregate.
HILL: Is there a single obvious solution to this or does this require as they say a New Zealander a whole of government approach to this problem?
TUKUITONGA: Well, obviously the causes are complex and clearly the solution has to be multi level, including parents and families taking more of an interest, government departments, schools, taking more of an interest. I mean we've put this report out with the assistance of our colleagues and back to New Zealand and I guess to try and tell New Zealand broadly that our future workforce depends on us educating all of our young ones more effectively.
HILL: Of course education in New Zealand does not just affect New Zealand. There are quite a few families in the Pacific Islands who have got access to New Zealand, send their kids to New Zealand for high school education. So this isn't just something that affects New Zealand. It actually affects the region, doesn't it?
TUKUITONGA: Yes and New Zealand and to some extent Australia of course has been the sort of preferred place for young ones from the Pacific to come and learn. We just don't know enough about the kids from the Pacific. I mean generally speaking they seem to do pretty well regardless of the education situation in New Zealand. The work that we did has been focusing on New Zealand born, New Zealand residents, young ones, and we have not actually looked at how Pacific young ones from the Pacific fair in New Zealand.
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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