Maori Battalion learning hub expands

Turning around poor achievement rates in young Maori is the aim of a Northland provider, which has won funding to expand into information technology education.

He Puna Marama Trust has received $990,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund over two years to set up a Whangarei digital hub, delivering IT programmes to Maori aged 16 to 25 years. The digital hub, called NGEN Room, is likely to join He Puna Marama’s success story of supporting local Ma¯ ori. It started with the Leadership Academy of A Company, a live-in, military-style programme for Maori secondary school boys, following in the footsteps of the legendary 28th (Maori) Battalion’s A Company, who were from Northland. Trust chief executive Raewyn Tipene said the academy started in 2010 in response to the worst NCEA exam statistics ever – with 19 per cent of Ma¯ ori boys in Whanga¯ rei passing NCEA level 1.

‘‘It is no secret that as a group Ma¯ ori are under-represented in the achievement stakes. There is a lot of korero, particularly for our boys, of it being a step towards incarceration,’’ she said.

The trust opened bilingual kura He Kapehu Whetu – Navigating Ma¯ori Futures – in 2014 to better support Ma ori boys and girls in education. It now teaches 150 primary students and 110 secondary students.

The academy will celebrate its 10th intake in 2020 with an Anzac Day march replicating the march up Waitangi hill taken by the 28th Maori Battalion before World War II, Tipene said.