Ministry of Education Moving to Improve Outcomes for Maori

The Minister of Maori Affairs, the Hon Tau Henare, has put the Ministry of Education on notice to improve its outcomes for Maori.

The move comes following the release of the monitoring report of the first ministry to be reviewed by Te Puni Kokiri. The review was conducted as part of TPK's monitoring responsibility enshrined in legislation.

While the review found the Ministry of Education had already established some measures to ensure Maori concerns were being considered, and had set itself a strategic objective to promote improved outcomes for Maori, any work on Maori education tended to be done in an ad-hoc manner without a coordinated plan or strategy.

Mr Henare said while the Ministry of Education had resources dedicated to Maori education the money had been diverted into providing a myriad of services for it - ranging from industrial relations, to ceremonial functions, to providing direct analysis into policy.

"I say if the money's there to be spent on the education of our kids, our people, lets insure it's getting spent in those areas and for the purpose of making a contribution to better our people's education, not for the reasons highlighted in the review," he said.

Mr Henare said all Government departments needed to be pulled into line to ensure their service delivery adequately addressed the needs of Maori.

"So the Ministry of Education's got 12 months to get its act together."

The Minister has formally put all Government departments on notice that eventually they will all come under the scrutiny of TPK to ensure the needs of Maori are being addressed.

"While the review may have been quite critical let us not be afraid of those criticisms and instead turn those criticisms into positive outcomes for Maori," said Mr Henare.

The review was conducted last year in the months of August and September and involved interviewing senior and group managers, analysis of reports and data, and reviewing the systems the Ministry of Education had in place to develop and implement policies.

Mr Henare acknowledged a lot of work had gone in to improving education outcomes for Maori since the review was initiated and pointed to the pluses for Maori education highlighted in this year's Budget.