Special Education Practices: M?ori of New Zealand

The first New Zealand Education Act was passed in 1877 and provided the basis for a free and universal education available for all children, covering 13 years of primary and secondary schooling. The educational system in New Zealand was essentially a central system. Funds are provided by the central government where teachers are trained in government colleges of education and the curriculum content and standards are determined nationally. The system was developed primarily on the basis of trends in other countries, particularly England. By 1989, The Education Act (Section 8) legislated “equal rights to primary and secondary education, people who have special educational needs (whether because of disability or otherwise) have the same rights to enroll and receive education in state schools as people who do not.” (Ministry of Education, New Zealand) As with general education, the development of special education in New Zealand has been influenced by ideas and practices imported from other countries, especially Britain and the United States. A reasonable range of special education provisions has evolved for students who have social, emotional or behavioral difficulties and speech, hearing, visual or physical disabilities. In the intervening years, New Zealand ’s belief in an egalitarian society has been combined with an increasing international awareness of human rights and disability issues. A significant outcome of such thinking has been the development and implementation of the Special Education 2000 policy. The special education policy framework, Special Education 2000, was first announced in the 1996 Budget to enhance resourcing for children and young people with special education needs. According to the Ministry of Education of New Zealand, “there is a number of school settings available to students with special education needs: mainstream classrooms, special schools, special education classes within mainstream schools, to just name a few.

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