Too many Maori are enrolling in questionable courses because tertiary institutions believe, mistakenly, that increasing Maori participation will fulfil their Treaty of Waitangi obligations, says Ngai Tahu leader Mark Solomon.
Speaking at the Christchurch launch of the Tertiary Education Commission yesterday, Mr Solomon implied that tertiary providers were paying lip-service to
the treaty.
They were not engaging meaningfully with iwi, and were second-guessing that what Maori needed were more courses.
"[But] a too-narrow focus on issues of access and participation tends to gloss over much deeper issues of quality," he said.
"An effect of this can be seen in the frenzied proliferation of tertiary providers offering any number of courses to even greater numbers of unsuspecting Maori youth."
He described a growing industry which included study options for Maori that "often fall short of iwi expectations as well as the very ordinary expectations that all parents have for their children".
Such a narrow focus on "the Maori problem" was a red herring that prevented an honest appraisal of exactly how to engage with iwi.
Mr Solomon said Ngai Tahu would not be a passive accomplice for the tertiary sector to fulfil its statutory demand for Maori participation and representation - the tribe "flatly refuses" to give the tick.
Maori representation was too often a pretence at giving Maori a voice, he said.
Instead it allowed institutions to silence informed debate and never grapple with the reality of treaty partnership.
Ngai Tahu refused the "comfortable space" of Maori representation, and proposed to develop key partnerships that better acknowledged the diversity of Maori and the centrality of iwi.
Mr Solomon warned that this would require tertiary institutions to embrace the "discomfort" of a new partnership model, with broader aims than those already set by institutions.
The new Tertiary Education Commission takes over the Ministry of Education's tertiary funding responsibilities and Skill New Zealand.
- NZPA
