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Bill Lethwick presents a programme in which several prominent figures in the field of Māori welfare and education discuss the struggles facing Māori children in the education system.
Those speaking include: Mr Douglas Ball, Chairman of the Māori Education Foundation; Mrs Jacqueline Baxter, a member of the Māori Womens Welfare League and selection committee member of the Māori Education Foundation; Mr Brownie Puriri, Māori Welfare Officer in Auckland; Mr Jock McEwen of Wellington.
They discuss the history of education of Māori education - from missionaries to native schools and the suppression of Māori culture in the learning environment. The government policy was for assimilation of Māori into Pākehā society and therefore Māori felt no ownership of their education.
They move on to discuss difficulties facing Māori children in education today [1967]. These include providing for their needs in mainstream schools; Māori values not being compatible with a competitive and individualistic Pākehā learning environment; apathy on the part of their parents who had either been subject to the native schools or who had no formal education at all and who therefore did not enforce attendance in their children. Family duties also take precedence over school attendance. Parents do not encourage or help their children because they feel ill equipped to do so.
In 1962 a New Zealand Māori Council was formed to discuss the issues facing Māori education. Part of the directive was to encourage parents to play an active part in their children's education. Jock McEwen says that language is a barrier to education for many Māori children as their English vocabulary is too limited and they often use Māori grammar; he gives examples. Some children only speak te reo Māori and therefore were disadvantaged in English-speaking school.
Nau Paraone Puriri speaks about his first experiences at school as a non-English speaking child. He says his name was corrupted from Nau Paraone to 'Brownie'.
J K Hunn, Secretary of Māori Affairs submitted a report on the need to address Māori education. It was found to be a far reaching issue, affecting all aspects of life from housing to healthcare to crime.
Charles Bennett, Assistant Secretary of Māori Affairs, says that the problem lies not with Māori children's inability to learn, but with teachers' inability to educate people of another cultural background.