Matauranga Strategy - Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated

2.3 Early Childhood Participation Project (ECPP)
The aim of this project is to increase the participation of children in Early Childhood Education
(ECE). In Kahungunu, Te Rätonga Mätauranga Mäori ö Wairarapa is contracted for one year
to deliver the programme, or when the target number of sixty children is reached. There is one
Mäori woman fieldworker in the Wairarapa area whose role it is to support families and to link
all Mäori children who are not currently enrolled in an early childhood centre, with an early
childhood education service. The decision to enrol a child however, remains the choice of the
parents and whänau. Among barriers to Mäori parents enrolling their children in ECE services
identified by the ECE working party in 2000 5 were: perceived high costs and affordability,
transport, lacking confidence to approach a centre, dissatisfaction with ECE services in their
area and lack of parent motivation. To date (November 2002), the fieldworker has successfully
identified a number of children and linked some of them in kohanga reo, daycare and playcentre.
All enrolled children are monitored by the Fieldworker for retention levels.
The targets reached to date may reflect the reasonable levels of Mäori participation in ECE
in the Wairarapa rohe. For example the participation rate of Mäori children prior to starting
school in July 2000 (see Table 3) was 78.3% in Tararua, 85.5% in Masterton, 100% in Carterton
and 89.3% in South Wairarapa, a total of 84.7% overall. All of these figures align favourably
with the levels of participation of Mäori in ECE in other areas of Kahungunu shown in Table
2 and certainly well above the national levels. The national participation rate of all 0-4 year
olds increased overall from 42% in 1990 to 60% in 2001(MOE, July 2001) 6 . The high participation
rates of Mäori in ECE in Wairarapa may also account for the short-term contract (one year)
offered by the MOE for this project although it is not clear what the benefits are of monitoring
retention levels of children successfully linked to an ECE service over such a short period of
time.
Table 2
Percentage of Mäori ECE enrolments 0-4 years in
Ngati Kahungunu rohe - 2000
District Mäori 0-4 yrs Total enrolments % Maori
Wairoa 345 515 67
Napier 698 2939 23.75
Hastings 1099 3786 29.02
Central H.B. 270 995 27.13
Tararua 199 983 20.24
Masterton 276 1193 23.13
Carterton 53 257 20.62
South Wairarapa 42 438 9.58
TOTAL 2982 11,106 26.85%
(Source: Ministry of Education 2001)
5 ECE working Party Strategic direction for ECE 2000-2001, Pers. Comm. Maori Convenor, Hastings October,
2002.
6 http://www.minedu.govt.nz/web/document/document_page.cfm?id=6750&p=1037.3832.6121
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