10 July 2013 at 9:00 am
Wānanga capture India’s interest
India’s Minister of Human Resource Development, Dr Pallam Raju, and a delegation of Indian education leaders, visited New Zealand this week to develop and reinforce education ties.
Yesterday the delegation took part in the second meeting of the India New Zealand Education Council (INZEC) and the first to be held in New Zealand.
A focus of the visit was to explore New Zealand’s approach to Māori-centred learning in the tertiary sector. On Monday the delegation visited Te Whare Wānanga O Awanuiārangi at the University of Auckland.
Dr Raju was interested in New Zealand’s approach to integrating Māori culture into modern-day education frameworks and how New Zealand lifts the achievement of Māori learners. The Indian Government sees education as integral for supporting India’s aboriginal tribes’ prosperity and engagement with wider Indian society.
“It was agreed by the Indian delegation, and the wānanga, that it was important to strike a balance between modernity and tradition, recognising the legitimacy of indigenous knowledge and the wider benefits of education as they relate to future employment but also wider cultural and community values,” says Ziena Jalil, Education New Zealand’s Regional Director South Asia.
“Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi expressed their desire to progress the relationship with India given the wānanga’s capability and success in running indigenous institutions from governance and curriculum development to connecting with the mainstream education system.”
The aboriginal tribes of India are its oldest inhabitants, making up 8.6 percent (more than 104 million people) of the country’s population.
Discussions at the INZEC meeting, held in Wellington, highlighted New Zealand’s approach to vocational pathways and qualification recognition, accreditation and institutional linkages for Indian and New Zealand tertiary institutions.
Ziena says “Given the short lead-in time for the second INZEC meeting, and that less than one year has passed since the inaugural meeting, the focus of the meeting was around re-committing to the relationship and critically, to agree to processes that would encourage joint activities supported by joint funding.”
While in New Zealand, Dr Raju had bilateral meetings with Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Steven Joyce and Minister of Education Hekia Parata. Dr Raju also visited the Education Review Office and Teachers Council.
