ABOUT
Our History
With the increasing Māori population and subsequent migration of Māori whanau to urban centres across Aotearoa, changes to education and its availability were beginning to take place in the 1940s. This led to an increase in attendance of Māori students in primary and secondary schools, as well as tertiary institutions.
While the increasing attendance at high schools was a big step in the right direction, it was clear by 1960 that Māori students has a lot less success moving on to higher learning and university, comared to Pakeha students. This was highlighted with the release of The Hunn Report, by the Acting Secretary for Māori Affairs J.K. Hunn. With the information presented in the report by Hunn. the government launched the Māori Education Foundation, proceeding with ardour to ensure the equality of educational attainment of Māori to Pakeha.
The Foundation was built upon the policies of providing financial means, guidance, and information to support Māori students in overcoming the ‘difficulties of their economic, environmental and cultural circumstances.’ It was also important to the Foundation that they provide awards and incentives to encourage Māori students into tertiary education. To attain the financial resources to begin providing this support, an initial government grant of £125,000 was given, alongside £600,000 of nationwide fundraising gathered from around the country.
On December 19th, 1961, The Māori Education Foundation has their first meeting, and the members were as follows (from left back): Secretary for Māori Affairs Jack Hunn; nominee of Māori Members of Parliament, Sir Eruera Tirikatene; nominee of Māori Women’s Welfare League, Mrs Mira Szászy; Director of Education, Arnold Campbell; Secretary of the Board, J.S. Joliff; Treasurer, A.E. Webb; Officer for Māori Education, Education Department, R.L. Bradly; Minister of Māori Affairs, Joseph Ralph Hanan; Chairman, Douglas Ball; Minister of Education, William Tennent.
The Māori Education Foundation (Abolition) Act 1993 was introduced into Parliament, which saw the abolition of the Foundation and the trustees were instead incorporated as a Board to continue it’s functions. From 1993 onwards, the Foundation was now known as the Māori Education Trust.
Since 1963, The Māori Education Trust has awarded a total of approximately 65,000 scholarships to secondary and tertiary tauira.
