Video transcript: Education for Māori

Transcript for a video about using information to improve Māori educational success.

Title: logo of the Office of the Auditor-General

Title: Education for Māori: Using information to improve Māori educational success

James Swindells (Senior Performance Auditor): 

Kia ora. We’ve published the third report in our five-year programme looking at Māori education. It’s immensely important – for too long educational outcomes for Māori students have been lower than for other students.

This report was focused on the use of information across the sector. [Image of report covers.] We’ve got clear findings and recommendations to share with you.

If we want to collectively make a difference in the lives of our kids, the entire sector needs to work together to make it happen. They need to collect and use information better to inform the decisions they make to improve outcomes for Māori kids. This report says that’s not happening as well as it should be – and it needs to happen. And it needs to happen now.

The information available isn’t of the right quality and there are gaps. We’ve recommended that the Ministry and schools improve how and what they collect and, most importantly, how that’s used and shared to make transparent and well-informed decisions about where to invest to improve outcomes for our tamariki. It has to be relevant to everybody in the sector, schools, agencies, and, of course, students, mums and dads. We all have a part to play.

What we’ve found is that though Māori educational achievement is improving overall – results for Māori students from roughly similar communities, being educated in roughly similar settings and circumstances, are very different.

We want people to ask the question – why is that? [Graphs showing variability in results for Māori students across different deciles.] Why does a Māori student have such a different outcome to another Māori student when they are in such similar learning environments?

When we went to schools we saw that there are lots of different ways that they use the information. The schools that used information effectively had better Māori student achievement. And that’s a key takeaway from this report – schools must collect, analyse, and use information about Māori students to ensure that they’re doing everything they can to give Māori kids the best chance at a great education. And the Ministry of Education has a key role in helping schools to achieve that.

In our report, you’ll see examples of good practice where schools are doing this really well.

Worryingly, we found that many of the schools operating in the most challenging circumstances had some of the least experienced leaders. New principals and teaching staff must receive enough support and mentoring to help them do their jobs well.

Like our other reports on Māori education we believe this report presents an opportunity for the sector to work together to ensure it has the right information to make the right decisions so our kids can realise their potential. We hope this report is used by the sector and by every person who wants better learning outcomes for Māori children.

Nau te rourou naku te rourou ka ora ai te iwi.

Title: [Image of report cover.] Read this report at www.oag.govt.nz

Watch this video.

Read the original report.