Dialogue: Scholarship's vital role in strong, inclusive society

The new Endeavour Scholarship scheme can do only good by building bridges between communities, say LYNDA REID, NEIL McWHANNELL and JOHN TAYLOR*.

Three independent schools have started a scholarship scheme that aims to help youngsters of Maori and Pacific Island descent gain qualifications that will help them to take their place as leaders.

Elders from Maori and Pacific Island communities fully support the programme. It will bring young people together and give them the opportunity to absorb each other's cultures, while raising the level of attainment of groups that are under-represented among high achievers in exams.

Without affirmative action for Maori and Pacific Island families, we cannot expect education, health and legal statistics to improve.

Our initiative will reach 56 students and their families, but the flow-on effect will touch the lives of whole communities. It is only by such integration that all cultures can appreciate the richness and value that each has to offer, and we all stand to benefit from living in a more equitable society.

We want to give as many young people as possible the confidence and understanding to deal well with the difficult issues that can arise as New Zealanders play their part in the continuing integration of our country.

It is certainly not a one-way street of assimilation - understanding, tolerance, humour and fun also emerge.

Previous scholarship schemes have seen students who might otherwise not be able to afford a private education flourish in independent schools.

A letter from the parents of a Maori boy who attended King's School captures an expectation that the scholarships will provide students with an environment where they can develop their unique talents: "The quality of education provided him with a springboard from which he has never looked back. He is now studying medicine at Auckland University."

A St Cuthbert's College scholarship winner represented her region in hockey, passed Grade VIII speech and drama examinations and, in her final prizegiving, was awarded prizes for accounting, economics, geography and commerce.

She said that she was motivated by the climate of mutual respect under which staff and students operated, a climate in which excellence and achievement were seen as the norm.

"I sometimes wonder who I'd be and what I would have become if I hadn't had the opportunity to come to St Cuthbert's," she said.

Similar programmes operate in the United States, where students representing a range of cultures are offered financial help to attend independent schools. Lorraine Munro, an outspoken black educator who headed highly successful schools in Harlem, says that you do whatever you can to get qualifications for children.

Only with qualifications will they have access to a world where they can have genuine aspirations, she says. Without qualifications they are doomed to repeating cycles of poverty and alienation.

Scholarship programmes have been a success story there. They have gone a long way to breaking down barriers, and the students have gone on to be successful leaders in their communities.

Despite the ideals that underpin the Endeavour Scholarship programme, the scheme is sure to have its critics.

Some will argue that we are not doing Maori and Pacific Island communities a favour by removing their most able children from their own schools, where their leadership qualities may be needed. Some may argue that the scholarship students will lose their cultural identity.

We would argue that the scheme adds to a broadening of cultural boundaries that is already in place.

St Cuthbert's College has a partnership with Manurewa East Primary School, under which Year 9 students read with and write to buddies at the primary school and staff share professional development opportunities.

Senior students at the college help with a homework programme at Orakei School. The relationship with Ngati Whatua o Orakei marae encourages all parties to widen their vision and see beyond stereotypes.

King's College's Year 12 exchanges with Otahuhu College promote friendship, understanding and mutual respect, while King's School is developing links with Tamaki Primary School.

Through these exchanges, all students benefit from a far richer cultural, musical and sporting tradition.

St Cuthbert's College and King's College have also produced Maori and Pacific Island scholars who are excellent role models for high academic achievement.

We envisage the students will share their cultural heritage in every aspect of the life of the schools - in the classroom, the playground, language classes and cultural groups.

The closure of St Stephen's College and Queen Victoria College, schools with proud histories that have produced great Maori leaders, has reduced student choice.

There is a greater need for affordable independent education for students of Maori and Pacific Island descent. The scholarships are another option.

The Endeavour Scholarship schools already have a growing population of Maori and Pacific Island students. Most pay full fees and make great sacrifices to achieve scholastically.

Critics may be concerned that the scholarship students may become alienated from their families and communities. But fundamental to the scheme is the principle that the schools, families and communities will need to work alongside each other and will all need to head in the same direction to encourage the students to reach their full potential.

Far from being alienated, the students who receive scholarships will be those who are most likely to become the new generation of role models and leaders in their own communities.

Critics may be concerned that education in a so-called elitist school may be difficult for a student from a background that is less affluent than many other students attending the schools.

But students in independent schools already come from families with widely ranging incomes. Under the discontinued Government-funded Tie scheme, staff and students were seldom aware of which students were attending independent schools with the subsidy and which were without it.

For less well-off families, the Endeavour Scholarship programme is realistic. We know there are costs above tuition fees, such as uniforms, field trips and so on.

To some extent, the special qualities that make an applicant stand out will be the same qualities that ensure that he or she retains a strong identity.

Scholarship students will have staff to support them and mentors to serve as role models.

When they graduate, the Endeavour Scholarship students will stand tall, knowing they have developed, feeling a strong self-worth and with the confidence to lead our society forward.

New Zealand needs to keep working towards a unified, multiracial vision, and initiatives such as this can only be good.

* Lynda Reid is principal of St Cuthbert's College, Neil McWhannell is headmaster of King's School and John Taylor is headmaster of King's College.