Āta haere kia koke whakamua
Go slow to go fast
Perhaps the most important advice we got when we started our PMP journey was to go slow to go faster later. This was not an easy path to take!
Peter McKenzie seeded the idea of spending down funds over a 20-year period on a single issue that could make a substantial and measurable difference to the lives of New Zealanders. The original Working Group took its time to decide on the issue and approach. After considerable consultation with thought leaders and extensive research it was decided a focus on child poverty could make a substantial difference to whānau and honour Peter’s vision.
Child poverty not only impacts health, education and wellbeing, it can affect life outcomes and contributes to many other issues raised by the ‘thought leaders’ consulted as the project was being established. With around 28% of children in New Zealand in 2021 living in after-housing costs income poverty (322,900 children) and 13% (150,400 children) living in extreme hardship there is an urgency to act and to act fast.1
However, again the Committee took time to understand what approach might make the greatest difference to reducing child poverty and to understand how best to seek ideas for potential funding. Sometimes the work was slow, and there was understandable pressure from within the Working Group, from the Trust and from external stakeholders to get things moving as each year another 15,000 tamariki are born into households in poverty in New Zealand. And yet together, a decision was made not to rush, to get things right.
While acknowledging the importance of services, the Committee were particularly interested in supporting bold and creative ideas which moved away from ameliorating the effects of poverty, towards “systems change” or “upstream” solutions that would have a significant and enduring impact on the reduction of poverty.
Systems change or upstream solutions, however, also take time, not only to identify and understand the root causes of a complex problem, but also to address them. One example of how going slow to go fast is from one of our Kaikōkiri (groups), Tokona te Raki. They observed that to address disparity in our education system between Māori and Pākehā at an individual level, it is possible to set up initiatives such as homework groups. However, by taking the time to research and more deeply understand the roots of this disparity, they found streaming to be an important cause, and one with profound consequences.
“Streaming is a systemic barrier to Māori success that operates at every level in our schools, particularly in mathematics and science… For Māori, streaming is especially damning. Stereotyping, deficit thinking, and racism all play a role that leads to extension classes being predominantly European and foundation classes largely Māori and Pasifika. This leads to further stereotyping and to the risk of Māori and Pasifika students internalising these stereotypes. Streaming also acts as a gatekeeper. Many of those students who have been labelled by teachers as low ability, do not or cannot enter full NCEA courses. Career choices are significantly narrowed to low skill, low paid, and high risk jobs and employment. The impact on our society and economy is huge. This is not fair. Yet, despite the evidence, schools continue with this system.”2
There is now a call to action for our whānau, schools, the government and iwi to remove streaming from our education system, thereby creating wide scale systemic change.
Despite the urgent need of the issues being addressed, such as the elimination of child poverty, going slow can help you go faster later.
Article by Alex Woodley
- 1 Child Poverty Action Monitor, (2022). Latest child poverty measures: 2020/21 (reported Feb 2022) Retrieved from https://www.cpag.org.nz/the-latest/current-statistics/
- 2 Tokona te Raki/Māori Futures (2021). Ending streaming in Aotearoa.