A lawyer named Tania Waikato has compiled a list of schools that have said that they will honour their Treaty of Waitangi obligations, despite National Party M.P. and Minister of Education, Erica Stanford removing them.
Anti-Maori lobby group Hobsons Pledge called it a victory when Ms Stanford announced that the legal obligations that tie schools to the Treaty would be renounced. Strangely, they then attacked the Minister, calling her “National’s ‘wokest’ M.P.”
A.C.T. Party in a Facebook post said that it was removing an obligation to bind the country to a “one size fits all”. This is a rather misleading statement, because in effect, what it has done is specifically sought to isolate and minimise one particular group – Maori – by removing the treaty obligations.
Treaty of Waitangi obligations bind the whole country. The Ministry of Justice states that it can be enforced where an Act of Parliament specifically references the Treaty. Parts of the Treaty are protected under certain pieces of legislation. For example, Article 3 which provides for the right to equality, is protected by the New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993 and New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, 1990.
Contrary to the belief of some, the Waitangi Tribunal does not enforce the law, but has power to make recommendations to the Government.
But, back to the schools who have decided to push back against this Governments attempt to undermine the Treaty of Waitangi.
I applaud you. Every one of the 1,007 that have said that they will uphold their obligations. To the other schools, which is about 1,400, I say that fortune favours the brave, and with 40% of your number – 2,569 according to the Ministry of Education in July last year – having as many as we can join this rebellion, a message can be clearly sent to Ms Stanford, the Ministry of Education and the Government of New Zealand that schools value the Treaty of Waitangi and its role in this country.
I hope that this will be part of a bigger push back against government reforms. Whilst there is definitely a strong need to review the 1989 Tomorrow’s Schools model that has been in place for the last 35 years, undermining obligations to ensure that Maori are given a fair hearing, is definitely not the correct way to achieve this. Whilst the curriculum needed significant changes, the ones being implemented push back against a wider social improvement, with an emphasis on an economy driven teaching programme for students.
The changes that we really need in our education system fall into the following areas:
- Less emphasis on using computers for everything – using handwriting stimulates the brain by encouraging multisensory actions (eyes read what your handwriting is telling the brain, which then tells your hands what/how to write next)
- A change in teaching approach make students ask who/what/where/why/when and how
- Reduce barriers where possible to physical risk – I am not encouraging students to do reckless things, but sometimes learning from hard experience has no better substitute
- Stop treating science as something to be suspicious of
- Look at ways to reduce the administrative workload of teachers – yes, they will still have to plan trips, but is a teacher doing a 12 hour day really best practice?
- Review the 1989 Tomorrow’s Schools framework in its entirety with a view to replacing if recommended
Addressing these matters will go some distance towards restoring the internal mechanics of the N.Z. education system. It will still be a work in progress, but these steps will be a good start.
Along with telling the Government how and where to shove its war on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 