An agreement that allows Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Bachelor of Education students the ability to tailor their programme to meet the educational needs of a Gisborne school is being hailed as “progressive”.
 
Te Wānanga o Aotearoa has renewed a memorandum of understanding with Kaiti School.
 
The MOU sees the two organisations agreeing on delivery/education priorities that will provide benefits for both pupils at the school and students of TWoA Bachelor of Education programme.
 
Te Mana Whakahaere member and former Te Wānanga o Aotearoa academic advisor, Whirikoka, Josh Wharehinga, said the collaborative arrangement between the two organisations was a “progressive” one.
 
“What this memorandum of understanding does is have us agreeing to mutually beneficial educational priorities – it could be that Kaiti School decides to have Matariki as one of their educational priorities and our kaiako would align our delivery with those priorities.”
 
“That’s quite special because schools are strongly autonomous institutions so this is quite trusting, progressive and forward-thinking.”
 
Mr Wharehinga said Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Kaiti School share a four year arrangement and the MOU re-signing further consolidates the relationship.
 
He said further memorandums of understanding could be signed with other Gisborne schools.
 
“That arrangement isn’t given to all tertiary providers or offered to all schools. You have to build up a reputation and trust with each other, “ he said.
 
“We have a special arrangement with Kaiti School and our placement students which has been formalised in a very strong agreement between us as an organisation and them as an organisation working for the benefit of each other.”
 
“We’re also very happy because Kaiti School have employed a lot of our graduates.”
 
Mr Wharehinga said Te Wānanga o Aotearoa was providing quality teaching graduates with a bicultural worldview that put them in good stead in a community like Gisborne, where nearly half the population is of Māori descent.
 
He said at least 80 per cent of recent teaching graduates had found work almost immediately at schools in the Gisborne/Tairawhiti region.