Press
Release - 10 June 2003
NCEA Proves
that Māori Boarding Schools Make an Educational Difference for Māori!
"It's
official," says Atawhai Tibble, CE of Paerangi Limited. 'The 2002
NCEA results confirm that the Māori boarding schools make a significant
educational difference for Māori kids. And we even show up the posh
schools!'
Tibble, 35, is the CE of a company owned by the six remaining Māori
boarding schools. He is working to help reposition the schools in the
highly competitive secondary school market and has spent the last week
on the NZQA website analysing the data of the Māori boarding schools
and comparing the results to other schools with high Māori student
rolls and is impressed.
'The data available on the NZQA website shows that five of our six schools,
rank next to, and even higher than some of the best schools in NZ in
terms of students who sat and achieved NCEA level 1 last year.'
"We also do a great job teaching Māori students better than
most mainstream schools. Two schools in particular a boys and a girls
Māori boarding school are in the top schools in NZ in terms of the
percentage of NCEA standards achieved by Māori students."
Tibble says the statistics only paint half the picture you also need
to understand the context and philosophy of the Māori boarding schools.
"Let's be honest. Even with the reintroduction of zoning, the so-called
'top' secondary schools screen do their best to screen kids out. Brown
means bad. Yet we have a high performing, low decile school with a large
percentage of students that mainstream schools would class 'at risk'.
So our schools are delivering school results with kids that even Kings
and Auckland Grammar canŐt compete with!"
"This confirms our view. When things are working, Māori students
excel within a Māori boarding school environment."
For further information, contact:
Atawhai Tibble
CE, Paerangi Limited
Ph 04 470 6065
Mobile 0274 364 373
Fax 04 470 6068
Email atawhai.tibble@paerangi.co.nz
Click
here to view the 2002 NCEA results
