Source: Radio New Zealand
Associate Education Minister David Seymour RNZ / Mark Papalii
An iwi-led charter school will open in Porirua later this year.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced the Ngati Toa-run secondary school for children in Y7-13, Kura Toa, would open in the third school term.
Seymour said Ngāti Toa’s education organisation, Puna Mātauranga, would work with the school along with Te Pikau o te Rangi, an iwi-designed service that supported learners.
He said the school and others opening this year would take the total number of privately owned, publicly funded charter schools to 21.
Seymour said Kura Toa would provide pastoral care founded on an iwi framework and would track students’ physical, mental, cultural, and social wellbeing.
He said it would ensure none of its students were falling through gaps in the education system.
Seymour said 28.5 percent of Māori students in Porirua left school without achieving NCEA Level 1, compared to 17.8 percent across all students in Wellington and 32.9 percent achieved NCEA Level 3 or higher, compared to 43.8 percent of all students in the region.
He said Māori youth were referred to attendance services at a rate of 23 per 1000, nearly twice the Wellington rate of 12.8 per 1000.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
