Robin Grieve: Reimagining Educational Equity

In a recent report by Radio New Zealand, it was highlighted that universities face the challenge of setting deadlines to ensure the academic success of Maori and Pacific students is the same as that of white students. These deadlines are a mandate from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), which has been striving for over a decade to tackle the high dropout and course failure rates of Maori and Pacific students.

In the past academic year, universities reported an overall course pass rate of 88 percent for white students, while Maori students achieved an 80 percent pass rate, and Pacific students reached only 69 percent. Similarly, at polytechnics, European students achieved an 81 percent pass rate, with Maori and Pacific students achieving 72 percent and 70 percent, respectively. The success rates of Asian and other student groups were not addressed in RNZ's report.

Among the ideas presented by those interviewed by RNZ to achieve educational parity was a call for Maori students to have a more significant voice and involvement in university governance, as well as the implementation of initiatives like increased funding for cultural programs. RNZ made no attempt to canvass ideas that might help Pacific students. One researcher at Auckland University, Dr. Sereana Naepi, blamed the academic staff for not using teaching methods that ensure equitable outcomes, emphasizing the importance of incentivizing them to do so.

TEC's vision of achieving academic success for Maori and Pacific students at the same rate as white students is a cause for concern for several reasons. First and foremost, to mandate equality in an educational institute that is not reflected in society is a simplistic and naïve approach that smacks of the sort of command-and-control policies a fascist or communist regime would have. Secondly it is discriminatory because it ignores the disparities among other ethnicities. Asian students have a pass rate 6% below that of white students and just 2% higher than Maori students, yet TEC ignores that.

A new government is going to have to address our increasingly discriminatory public service sector. It must identify individuals responsible for prioritizing the needs of Maori and Pacific students over those of other groups and question why the same level of attention is not given to Asian students in this case. The ACT and National parties are advocating for a reduction in the public service workforce, which could serve as an effective measure to address racial biases within the system by just getting rid of the racists.

Professor Damon Salesa, Vice-Chancellor of AUT, made a valuable point which highlights the naivety of TEC in making this mandate. He emphasized that universities are being tasked with addressing disparities rooted in broader societal issues. Educational disparities more often than not stem from factors such as family backgrounds, intergenerational poverty, the quality of the compulsory education sector, and the cost of living, he said.

The tragedy of TEC's focus on racial parity for Maori and Pacific students is that it overlooks the individual challenges faced by students from all backgrounds. Professor Salesa rightly pointed out that educational disparities often have their origins outside the educational sphere, such as socio-economic disadvantages and generational poverty. Instead of striving for racial parity, TEC should set a goal to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds succeed on par with their more privileged peers. This would be a truly commendable vision.

If TEC was to adopt such a vision it would find that not only has education become more equitable for people from all backgrounds, but the racial parity problem it is fixated on will have been solved as well.

Robin Grieve, a tutor, orchardist and retired farmer, is Chairman of Pastural Farming Climate Research HERE.