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Marae-based driver licensing programme

A marae-based driver licensing programme is setting whānau on a road to a bright future and new lifelong goals.The Manukau Urban Manukau Authority (MUMA) in South Auckland manages a free driver licensing programme - funded by the Ministry of Social Development - from the Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere.The success of the programme is evident in the testimonials from people who have not only completed the programme but who have now used that licence to find work.The programme is turning the ti...

Why are teen girls in crisis?

Warning: This article contains details that some people may find disturbing or triggering.Anxiety over academics. Post-lockdown malaise. Social media angst.Study after study says American and worldwide youth are in crisis, facing unprecedented mental health challenges that are burdening teen girls in particular. Among the most glaring data: A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed almost 60 per cent of US girls reported persistent sadness and hopelessness. Rates are up i...

Police Assistant Commissioner Penny

Former Gisborne woman, police Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny, is set to leave the police top brass on a temporary basis.Asst Comm Penny begins a two-year secondment to Oranga Tamariki next month.She is in charge of front-line capability for police and recently led the nationwide Tactical Response Model, which included more training for police and specialist armed teams. She will join another senior police employee on secondment at Oranga Tamariki, Cassandra Anderson, who was an executive dir...

History of the tiriti

From 1840, Māori gradually became aware that they were no longer free to dispose of their lands as they chose. Under the terms of the Treaty/Te Tiriti, they could sell land only to the government. If they wanted to sell land and the government did not want to buy it, the land could not be sold to anyone else. If the government agreed to buy the land, officials could force Māori to sell at a low price, and then could sell it to settlers at a much higher price. Māori communities naturally resen...

Changes to NCEA deferred

The government will give schools a temporary alternative to new online literacy and numeracy tests that many teenagers have found too hard.It is also deferring major NCEA changes so schools can concentrate on maths, reading and writing.Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced this afternoon that in 2024 and 2025 schools could use regular NCEA standards instead of the online tests to prove students met minimum reading, writing and maths requirements.From next year, students must pass either the o...

Church sells site to Māori health provider

A Christian Pentecostal church has opted to sell its site to a Māori health provider to honor a “treaty” relationship between the two parties.Elim Church, which has been in Hamilton for over 60 years, recently sold their Hamilton venue at “market rate” to Māori health provider – Te Kōhao Health.The sale came after several years of the two groups working together, with Te Kōhao stating that the church presented them “with a purchase offer we couldn’t refuse”.The purchase of th...

Wesley College: Oranga Tamariki and police

Child welfare agency Oranga Tamariki is working alongside police to investigate a “report of concern” relating to embattled Wesley College.And police have confirmed they were notified of several incidents at the school in recent years, including assault, trespassing and bullying, which resulted in police action or were dealt with internally at the school.Link to article: Wesley College: Oranga Tamariki and police investigating ‘report of concern’ at embattled school - NZ Herald...

Raising grandson easier

A retired man unexpectedly thrust back into parenting claims he was told to “toughen up” when he questioned his 20-day wait for a meeting with Work and Income.The agency has denied such language was used, but has apologised for not considering him for emergency assistance.Peter Sargent, 68, didn’t think twice when he stepped up to become the primary carer for his 11-year-old grandson in late March.Navigating the needs and emotions of an adolescent doesn’t faze him, but the struggle to ge...

Case of funding inequity for kura

Maōri continue to be marginalised in the education system, Kura Kaupapa says, ahead of its presentation of an urgent inquiry to the Waitangi Tribunal.The tribunal will hear the inquiry from the body which oversees Kura Kaupapa Māori later this month.The claim from Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa concerns Crown practices, which it argues continue to marginalise Māori in the education system.It is 38 years since the first full-immersion kura kaupapa opened.Link to article: ...

Ngāti Awa wins right to appeal

An iwi has won the right to appeal a Chinese-owned water bottling plant's plans to expand its facility and fill nearly a billion bottles from an aquifer in Whakatāne every year.Creswell NZ, a subsidiary of multi-billion dollar Chinese water bottling giant Nongfu Spring, was granted consent by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in 2018 to bottle water from the Ōtākiri Aquifer.However, the issue of consent has been consistently challenged by local iwi Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, which claims the ...

World War I Māori Pioneer Battalion

Twenty metres under the streets of the French town Arras, 24,000 World War I soldiers sheltered in a 19-kilometre network of tunnels and prepared for battle.At their most complete, the tunnels had running water, electric lights, kitchens, a light rail system and a fully equipped hospital, thanks to the efforts of 43 members of the Māori Pioneer Battalion, who dug the tunnels alongside many others.The battalion, and hundreds of soldiers from the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, spent years turnin...

Graham Richardson: Voice to Parliament likely to get up

A prominent Labor elder-statesman has dismissed claims the Voice to Parliament will improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.Graham Richardson, a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, said he expects the Australian people will support the Voice at the referendum later this year, but it wouldn’t change much for Indigenous Australians, particularly those in remote communities.“I think it will get up, but I don’t think it means that much. I don’t believe it will change the lives...

Analysis:

When interviewing primary school teachers, two resourcing issues have been raised over and over again – adequate learning support for children that need it, and smaller classroom sizes.Both require significant financial investment from the Government, as well as people.They’ve been the elephants in the classroom. Access to greater learning support requires major system change and poses questions around equity of access and eligibility. Smaller classroom sizes are easier to grasp as a concept...

Canada to pay $800m

Canada has agreed to pay C$800m (US$600m) to settle a land claims dispute with five First Nations, an acknowledgment it failed to honour a treaty signed more than a century ago – and the latest in a string of deals reshaping the relationship between government and Indigenous communitiesOver the weekend, officials with both the federal and British Columbia governments admitted successive administrations had broken their promises to the Blueberry River First Nations, the Doig River First Nation,...

This 20-minute daily practice makes kids ‘better problem solvers,’

There are lots of daily tasks — eating vegetables, doing homework, brushing teeth — that kids might not understand, or care, are beneficial. But forming these habits are necessary for them to become well-adjusted adults. Link to recording and article: This 20-minute daily practice makes kids 'better problem solvers' (cnbc.com)...

Review: Rotorua Musical Theatre cast

A touching story of love, friendship and community is brought to life in Rotorua Musical Theatre’s production of Rent, and is a show well worth booking a seat for.It is running from April 14 to April 29.Set in the East Village of New York City, Rent is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today.Loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Boheme, it follows a year in the life of impoverished friends who are also young artists and musicians, from 1989-1990.Link to arti...

The Front Page:

Ongoing tremors underneath Lake Taupō have seen the alert level for the supervolcano rise for the first time in history.Geologists are closely monitoring the site in a bid to understand why this is happening.Dr Finn Illsley-Kemp, a seismologist from Victoria University of Wellington, tells The Front Page podcast the volcano last erupted around 1800 years ago, in 232 AD.Link to podcast and article: The Front Page: Tremors under Lake Taupō trigger rise in supervolcano alert level for first ...

Māori knowledge can help us

Around the world, indigenous knowledge is playing a growing role in helping societies respond to the climate crisis. Tribes and other indigenous entities own a high proportion of native forests in many countries, for example and they are applying their traditional knowledge to restore that land and other natural resourcesThis expanding practice is evident, for example, in major chapters on such knowledge in reports by the IPCC, the United Nations’ climate science body, and the roles indig...

Te Tairāwhiti iwi's ambitious rapid rebuild plan

ATe Tairāwhiti iwi is driving an ambitious plan to rebuild homes within six months for whānau left homeless by Cyclone Gabrielle.Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki chief executive Robyn Rauna is leading the charge to replace or repair homes in the small community of Te Karaka.Rauna said many whānau in Te Karaka felt abandoned during the cyclone."When our people are the most vulnerable, somebody's going to go into bat for them."So Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki is coming up with a bold plan to rebuild and repair home...

Former Labour MP Louisa Wall

Former Labour MP Louisa Wall is understood to be thinking about running for Te Pāti Māori in Manurewa in this year's general election.Meanwhile, Buttabean Motivation (BBM) founder Dave Letele has confirmed he is in talks with the party about standing in Māngere.Wall won the Manurewa seat for Labour in 2011 and retained it with a comfortable margin in 2014 and 2017.However, an internal party stoush led to her withdrawing her nomination in 2020. She ended up on the Labour list for that election...

Class sizes ratio announcement

A primary school principal has labelled the government's class size policy a "slap in the face", saying the education minister must be "crazy" if she thinks it will help existing teachers or attract new ones. Jan Tinetti earlier on Monday announced $106 million to put more 320 teachers into classes teaching years four to eight, dropping the average class size for those years from 29 pupils per teacher, to 28.The goal was not expected to be met until 2025, Tinetti saying she was "not happy w...

Damien Grant: Our schools are broken,

OPINION: In the month of April my 9-year-old will attend school for a total of six days. Thanks to Easter, Anzac Day, a teacher-only day and school holidays, he will miss out on the joys of the local school.This may seem disappointing from a pedagogical perspective, but given the quality of education he receives I am not concerned. The teachers, I should say, are great, but they are working in a system and world view that mandates and enforces mediocracy.Link to video and article: Damien Gr...

Watch: Government announces smaller class sizes

The government has announced moves to reduce primary and intermediate school class sizes, supported by hiring more teachers.A Ministerial Advisory Group will also be set up to look at further changes to class sizes.Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced the policy alongside Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at Remuera Intermediate School in Auckland this morning.Both are due to attend a media briefing around 12.15pm.It would see classes in Year 4 to Year 8 - right up until high school - shift from ...

Hawke’s Bay census

The original “due date” for the 2023 census collection has well since passed but in Hawke’s Bay, the mammoth project has only just begun for Stats NZ ground teams.Until early June, a locally led taskforce will be out in the community making contact with those who have not yet filled in their forms.But some areas will require a more careful approach than others, and staff say they are exercising humility and respect as they travel to some of the hardest-hit areas.Gill Scarlett, one of the t...

Greg Bruce:

Last week, I went inside New Zealand’s education system. Recent reports had given me some idea of what I might find: Teachers holding their fingers to the wind, hoping lesson plans would fly out of the Beehive and stick to them, pupils dancing around bonfires on to which they were throwing the books they’re unable to read, parents wailing at the realisation their children will never be smart enough to lead the Act party. Based on recent rhetoric, I half-expected to emerge from my experience ...