Support for ending streaming in schools

A report that champions a move to end streaming in Aotearoa has been welcomed by CORE Education.

The release of the Tokona Te Raki report into the ‘pervasive practice’ of streaming has prompted social enterprise CORE Education ‘a call to action which CORE intends to answer’.

The Ending Streaming in Aotearoa (2021) Tokona Te Raki | Māori Futures Collective report said,

“We want all rangatahi to be inspired by their futures, we want them to be thriving in their education, confident in their culture and determining their own path. Streaming is a barrier to this vision and it needs to end.”

In media release last week, CORE Education stated, “Streaming is deeply embedded into the organisational structure of many primary and secondary schools in Aotearoa, and even in early childhood. Whether the practice is called banding or ability grouping, it is a method of sifting learners for perceived ability and
manageability. It comes from a deficit perspective and, as the report shows, systemic bias
means those in the ‘bottom’ group, band, or stream are often Māori and Pacific learners.”

CORE’s Tumu Whakarae, Dr Hana O’Regan, says, “Our company vision is for an equitable
and thriving Aotearoa through learning. Realising this kaupapa leads us to seek out and
actively work in, places where learners experience inequitable outcomes or treatment,
fewer opportunities, and limited resources. We know first hand that it can be hard to do
things differently, and that learning communities will need support to look with fresh eyes
at how they can ‘de-stream’ so that all learners have the best chance of success.”

Dr O’Regan acknowledges that addressing an inequitable practice like streaming requires
these communities to be courageous, and be willing to change. “But we are ready to pick up
the wero placed before us from Tokona Te Raki to do what we can, as a Tiriti-honouring
organisation, to advocate for and support equitable learning for all.”