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Pacific News Briefs

Ngatai Huata, daughter of Canon Wi Te Tau Huata, who says her father’s song was basically colonized and bastardized by the Ministry of Education of NZ in the 1960s.  [photo: rnz]
compiled by Samoa News staff

SAMOA KEEN TO HOST PACIFIC GAMES: TUILAEPA —

The Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is keen for Samoa to host the 2019 Pacific Games.

He has even announced his intention to participate as an athlete in the sport of Archery.  

This was revealed in a letter Tuilaepa wrote to Pacific Games Council President, Mr Vidya Lakhan, seeking an update. The letter dated 30 June, 2017 was obtained by Samoa Observer. 

Recently, Tonga announced they are unable to host the games. 

“I have to date received no response to our interest to host the Pacific Games. Tonga has declined as communicated to you by our President of  S.A.S.N.O.C [Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee] Patrick Fepulea’i,” said Tuilaepa in his letter.  

“Our facilities are available and were used to host the Commonwealth Youth Games end of 2015. 

“We have also signed an MOU with China to further upgrade our Sports Facilities between now and 2018. 

“As leader of our Government I once again reiterate our interest in promoting sports through our hosting of the next Pacific Games. 

“As a sportsman myself, I intend to participate as a competitor in Archery chasing my Gold medal which I missed in 2007 in Apia and to compete will be convenient for me if the Games are held here,” said the Prime Minister. 

This is the second correspondence where Samoa has expressed interest directly to Pacific Games Council. 

In May, this year, S.A.S.N.O.C President Fepulea’i wrote to the Council informing them of Samoa’s bid to host the Pacific Games. 

This week the Pacific Games Council has begun legal proceedings against the Tonga government, following its decision to pull the plug on hosting the 2019 Games, according to reports by RNZI. 

The Council confirmed yesterday [Monday] it would formally terminate the host agreement with Tonga for the 2019 Pacific Games, after the deadline passed for the government to recommit its support.

 According to RNZI, PGC President Vidhya Lakhan and CEO Andrew Minogue met with the Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva, and two of his ministers in early June, in a last ditch attempt to try and change their minds.

But the Prime Minister said the cabinet's decision was final and the government wished to focus its resources on other more important areas of economic development.

 Andrew Minogue said they have engaged a solicitor in Tonga and will now pursue damages through the court.

“That's an important statement for us to make. We had a contract, a binding contract,” Minogue told RNZI. 

 “The government unilaterally walked away from it without any consultation — that's not behavior we think should be ignored or rewarded in any way so yeah, we will be seeking legal redress for that.”

 Minogue said the legal action was a matter of principle.

 “We're not a money-hungry organization, we're a very lean outfit, we've never had a lot of resources and I don't think we'll ever have a lot of resources in the future," he said.

 “It's not about money, it's about the principle of walking away from a contract and we all put five years, or almost five years, of work into planning for the Games in 2019 to be in Tonga and we were contractually bound with the Government and with T.A.S.AN.O.C. to do that.

 “I think it's a very important statement of principle - you just can't walk away from those agreements unilaterally.”

 Minogue said the Council was now seeking expressions of interest from countries that want to host the Pacific Games in 2019, with a final decision expected by the end of August,” according to a report by RNI. 

(Source: Samoa Observer)

SAMOANS; PEOPLE WITH BIG HEARTS

Visiting a country with temperatures around the balmy 30 degrees, you’ll get the urge to relax, let your hair down and enjoy the sea breeze.

This was a comment made by Janine Tyler of Auckland New Zealand when Dear Tourist caught up with her yesterday afternoon.

She is a teacher by profession at one of the colleges in New Zealand and she will be going back home this coming Friday.

As to why she chose to come to Samoa, Ms. Tyler said because some of her students are Samoans and she wanted to experience the lifestyle as well as to explore the place.

“I’m here with a friend who is also a teacher. We came for a holiday and to relax,” she said.

“We are staying at the beautiful Aggie Grey’s Resort near the airport and I just love the people.

“They are very nice, very friendly and always welcoming. It’s a lot different to back home.”

Ms. Tyler said she will be visiting the island of Savaii today.

We want to go there and see all that we can,” she said.

“We want to make the most of our time here before we go back but so far it has been an amazing holiday even though it’s only six days.

“I haven’t tried the local beer because my friend and I are cocktails and wine ladies, but it doesn’t matter because in the past days we have been here we have fallen in love with this country.

“Despite the heat, it is much better than back home where it’s always freezing.

“We will be leaving on Friday but we will definitely bring our children and families next time and it will be longer than this trip.

“Samoa is a small place but it is filled with people who have big hearts.  That’s what makes this place unique. 

“I am glad that I chose Samoa for holiday.”

(Source: Samoa Observer)

SCHOOLS WITH POORER KIDS 'UNFAIRLY STIGMATIZED' BY RANKINGS

The school system disadvantages schools with students from poorer backgrounds, and assessment of teachers should take those backgrounds into account, a think tank says.

In its report published today, the New Zealand Initiative called for an overhaul of the way the government measures school and teacher performance.

It said the current system did not measure how much students improved during the year and that masked the good work of schools with students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

That also allowed schools with a lot of rich students to cruise.

"NCEA rankings unfairly stigmatize as failures schools with students from low socioeconomic communities, while schools with affluent students sometimes earn undue praise," the report said.

It said the government should find a fairer way of judging and comparing schools, and Education Review Office reports should state how each school's performance compared to others with similar cohorts of students.

The report said one possible method would be to set pass-rate targets for each school based on its student cohort.

It said that would give recognition to schools that had low attainment rates but were doing a good job, and make it easier to identify poor performers.

Similarly, schools and the ministry could use data about students to predict end-of-year results for particular classes of students and use that information to measure their teachers' performance.

"These analyses can show teachers who did a great job in lifting the achievement of struggling students, or in helping the most able students reach their potential - all across similar classrooms in the country," the report said.

"Using this information would also show the exemplar and superstar teachers whose students considerably overachieve relative to their expected performance."

Teachers' Performance

It said the Education Ministry should assess children's results at persistently poorly-performing schools so the schools could see if any of their teachers were under-performing.

Schools were overly cautious about measuring teachers' performance, it said, because they feared it would be "a blunt tool for blaming teachers for underperforming students".

It said the government needed better ways of helping poorly-performing schools.

"This could include facilitating exemplar schools to share their expertise by formally combining several school boards, and encouraging the non-government sector to participate in education provision through school governance."

The report said ERO reports should be clearer, and recommended adopting the English approach which started reports with a list of ratings against several areas of performance.

It also recommended bulk funding so schools could take full control of their budgets, including teacher salaries.

However, Post Primary Teachers Association Jack Boyle said that would be a 30-year backward step.

"Offering bulk funding as a reward for school leaders who are good, that's a poisoned chalice.

"Good school leaders around the country voted last year that they overwhelmingly don't want it."

Mr Boyle said the report contained too many inconsistencies and contradictions.

(Source: RNZ)

HAVE WE BEEN SINGING 'TUTIRA MAI NGA IWI' WRONG?

We've been singing 'Tutira Mai Nga Iwi' for nearly 60 years, but the composer's daughter says we've got the words wrong.

The waiata was written in a car the 1950s, while Canon Wi Te Tau Huata was driving past Lake Tūtira. His daughter, Ngatai Huata says he was teaching her and her siblings the words as he made it up.

“Our father was a mobile, walking, talking tohunga, so everywhere we travelled he would write songs ... about the area we were in.

“He’d write songs about mountains and about land and about who’s genealogy it was, and that’s how he taught us.”

The song became popular in the 1960s when the Ministry of Education published the song in schoolbooks.

Ngatai Huata says this's where the mistake began.

 “Some people can’t understand how it happened, but actually I can tell you clearly … it was colonized basically. Corrupted.

“Dad taught it in all his Sunday schools, bible classes, all his kapa haka … and then it just caught on.

“We didn’t realize that actually the Ministry of Education … had gone and published it right through all the schools.  They didn’t even seek consent [or] bother to wonder who wrote it.”

So what's the error?

The original third-to-last line in the song was "kia tapatahi" not "kia ko tapatahi" as it has been taught for generations.

Kia tapatahi is another way of saying ‘stand as one’, or ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’. “There’s no such word as ‘kia kotapatahi’. That’s just some English [speaking] person bastardizing our language,” says Huata.

(Source: RNZ)