Education For All: Addressing Educational Disparities In Maori And Pasifika Communities In New Zealand

Background

1. Maori and Pasifika are two culturally diverse and ethnic groups of New Zealand that contributed with 14.1% and 7.4% in the total population of the country (Education Counts, 2018). Besides their strong contribution in the overall population and economic growth of the country, there is very little awareness among people regarding the policies and legislation that have been prepared for their upliftment and development (Pasifika.tki.org.nz, 2018). Education is one amongst these policies depending on which the government has destined to increase the confidence, and ability of the Maori and Pasifika community so that they can contribute to the development of New Zealand. If the governmental statistics are followed, the total number of Maori representation in primary education stands at 67%, secondary education- 33% whereas Maori representation in teaching staff stands at 9.8% (Ministry of Health NZ, 2018). On the other hand, similar standings for Pasifika community stands at 78% for primary and 34% at secondary education. Therefore, from this stats it can be determined that, the number of population, joining education in primary education, cannot reach to secondary educational level (Pasifika.tki.org.nz, 2018). Therefore, this issue of educational disparity in case of people of Maori and Pasifika community will be discussed so that academic results for these communities can be improved. For this purpose, two educational plans or policies for Maori and Pasifika community will be discussed (Ministry of Health NZ, 2018). The Pasifika education system has three primary determinants, parents and families, educational sector and the early learning or schooling process, and to improve these three aspects are taking care of . These factors determine the participation, engagement and achievement of educational goals set for such population (Pasifika.tki.org.nz, 2018). On the other hand, Maori educational policy ‘Ka Hikitia’ determine that the leadership of Maori can be strengthened so that they can easily apply the frameworks which is necessary for overall development of Maori education 9 Education in New Zealand, 2018). These policies will be attempted to influence, so that better outcomes for Maori and Pasifika education can be achieved. 

2. For this purpose, the social action that I will conducting is spreading awareness about the educational rights and opportunities provided by the government for higher education of Maori and Pasifika community and spreading the importance for such educational reform (Paek et al., 2013). For this purpose, I will be conducting public awareness campaigns around the locations, where population of such communities higher, however their contribution in educational system is not appropriate to their population. Ironmonger et al. (2015) determines the public awareness campaigns are important pillars in determining that communities and population around the cities stars thinking about a specific issue, which is important for their overall development and upliftment (Murphy et al., 2012). There are several possible ways to determine public awareness such as planned events, poster presentation, publishing documentaries and websites, providing articles in schools, organizations and offices so that people can understand the effectiveness of the topic. Public awareness is an important aspect for creating an awareness among the population because to change the mindset of people, a cumulative force is required which can determine the improvement and progressive attitude of the communities (Paek et al., 2013). Further, with public values and shared thoughts it is easy to make a changes in the community, its thinking and beliefs. In this aspect, i will try to understand the views and perceptions of the affected communities to understand the reason of their drop outs from higher education (Dev et al., 2014). As justification, I can say that cumulatively, Maori and Pasifika community contribute a major section in population, however they are not able to contribute in the country’s Gross domestic product or GDP because of their less representation and contribution in education as well as employment sector. Hence, using this public awareness campaign, I will try to make people understand the importance of educating these communities so that total implement of countries future can be achieved (Paek et al., 2013).

Educational Policies for Maori and Pasifika Communities

3. The name of the social action will be “Education for All” and it will be conducted in the populated areas of Auckland, where the number of Pasifika and M?ori community is higher. As the governmental data, the number of people belonging to pacific community is 14.6% whereas the number of people belonging to Maori community are present in 10.6% (Nemec, 2017). Therefore, five locations of Auckland city will be chosen for conduction of public awareness campaigns. For this purpose, contact with local governmental authorities will be required so that with proper governmental permission and observation, these awareness campaign can be conducted. For this purpose, I will write letter to all the political heads of the area and the community heads so that while meeting the political leaders, these community leader can represent their community (Rawson, 2016). Further seeking approval from the local authorities, arranging place for such public awareness campaign will be required. For this purpose, I will try to communicate with local government town halls and schools with ability to sustain more than 100 people can be determined. I will require different equipment such as projector machine, at least 100 chairs, access to governmental links and data related to Maori and Pasifika education facts, a metal detector machine at the entry point of the awareness campaign to determine safety of the population gathered in the campaign (Nemec, 2017). Further, different posters, banners will be prepared to stick throughout the area so that people around the community can be influenced to join the awareness campaign. Further, pamphlets will be prepared and different volunteers will be asked to distribute them among the population so that they can be provided with the knowledge about the rights and responsibilities towards their nation (Rawson, 2016).

4. This is an important aspect of public awareness campaign that the public gathered for such information sharing program can be treated equally and provided with a logical and correct data so that the legal compliance of the program can be determined. Therefore, ethical implication becomes an importance aspect while conducting such public awareness campaigns (Paek et al., 2013). For Education for All, ethical compliance will be done by providing fair and honest data provided by the government regarding the state of education in Maori and Pasifika community/. Further all the other community people who will attend eth campaign will also be asked to provide their views and concerns about their education system so that a holistic approach in developing education system can be determined (Dev et al., 2014). Further, for authentication of the governmental data, all the people present in the awareness campaign will be provided with a booklet in which all the data will be written with their respective government website link so that from there can also retrieve and judge the authentication of the data (Diepeveen et al., 2013). Further, translator of both the communities will be present in the public awareness campaign so that lingual disparity in the system can be prevented and they can be provided with chances to understand the campaign without any hesitation.

Social Action Plan: Education for All

5. 

6. There are several challenges and barriers the public awareness campaign had to face so that the anticipated potential consequences of the public awareness campaign comes in favour of the benefits of the Maori and Pasifika community (Rosen & Lebwohl, 2013). The primary success of arranging such public awareness campaign in places where Maori and Pasifika community are in major numbers, helped to create a positive debate among the people so that educational rights of these communities can be protected (Moh & Manaf, 2014). Further, other communities contributing mostly to the nation’s development were among the people who started discussing about the educational need of Pasifika and Maori community, indicating towards a positive future. However, the potential social consequences was inclusive of several negative aspects as well. Barriers of these public awareness campaign was the unwillingness of the communities to take part in such awareness camps as they were not aware of the fundamental discussions of the sessions (Bray et al., 2015). Further, they were not sure that effect of this awareness campaign will be in their favour. Therefore, the effect of “education for all” awareness campaign was more positive than negative as through this campaign the truth and state of educational policies prepared for Pasifika and Maori communities were reviewed and provide to a major section of the society so that reform can be initiated and people of these communities can be influenced (Rosen & Lebwohl, 2013).

7. The social action plan which has been chosen for this purpose is the public awareness campaign, which is, as mentioned by Dev et al. (2014), the most effective influential and inspirational way to motivate and urge to people so that they can take necessary steps to change their step (Diepeveen et al., 2013). However, there are several alternatives such as providing the government with data related to the policy and its negative effects about the Pasifika and Maori community. However, Rosen and Lebwohl, (2013) mentioned that, this alternatives not that effective as without the support of the community, the government will not been able to understand the extent of their educational concern. Further, we could have also conducted protest march or awareness march so that the communities can portray their concern however, it will affect the population of the city Auckland (Bray et al., 2015). Therefore, as per Moh and Manaf (2014), organization of Public awareness campaign was the appropriate action so that influencing the M?ori and Pasifika community can be done properly for their educational rights. Further, Rosen and Lebwohl, (2013) mentioned that it was a perfect option to urge these communities to take charge of their own educational right because, in other awareness programs, only these communities were included. However, in this public awareness campaign, other communities also took part so that they can understand the educational needs and deficits of M?ori and Pasifika community and take necessary actions against it (Dev et al., 2014). Therefore, this public awareness campaign was chosen to discuss the educational need of the M?ori and Pasifika community.

References

Bray, J. E., Straney, L., Barger, B., & Finn, J. (2015). Effect of public awareness campaigns on calls to ambulance across Australia. Stroke, 46(5), 1377-1380.

Den Hond, F., Rehbein, K. A., de Bakker, F. G., & Lankveld, H. K. V. (2014). Playing on two chessboards: Reputation effects between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA). Journal of Management Studies, 51(5), 790-813.

Diepeveen, S., Ling, T., Suhrcke, M., Roland, M., & Marteau, T. M. (2013). Public acceptability of government intervention to change health-related behaviours: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 756.

Education Counts. (2018). Quick Stats about M?ori Education | Education Counts. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/31351/nga-haeata-matauranga-annual-report-on-maori-education/7.-quick-stats-about-maori-education

Education in New Zealand. (2018). M?ori. Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/quick-links/maori/

Ironmonger, L., Ohuma, E., Ormiston-Smith, N., Gildea, C., Thomson, C. S., & Peake, M. D. (2015). An evaluation of the impact of large-scale interventions to raise public awareness of a lung cancer symptom. British journal of cancer, 112(1), 207.

Ministry of Health NZ. (2018). Tagata Pasifika in New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/pacific-health/tagata-pasifika-new-zealand

Moh, Y. C., & Manaf, L. A. (2014). Overview of household solid waste recycling policy status and challenges in Malaysia. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 82, 50-61.

Nemec, S. (2017). New Land, New Opportunities, New Language: Ma?ori Television and Migrants Learning Te Reo. MEDIANZ: Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand, 17(2).

Paek, H. J., Hove, T., Jung, Y., & Cole, R. T. (2013). Engagement across three social media platforms: An exploratory study of a cause-related PR campaign. Public Relations Review, 39(5), 526-533.

Pasifika.tki.org.nz. (2018). Pasifika communities in New Zealand / Pasifika in New Zealand / LEAP / Home – Pasifika. Retrieved from https://pasifika.tki.org.nz/LEAP/Pasifika-in-New-Zealand/Pasifika-communities-in-New-Zealand

Rawson, E. (2016). Te Waioratanga: Health promotion practice-the importance of M?ori cultural values to wellbeing in a disaster context and beyond. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 20(2), 81.

Rosen, T., & Lebwohl, M. G. (2013). Prevalence and awareness of actinic keratosis: barriers and opportunities. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 68(1), S2-S9.

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