School Trustees who are Māori

Indicator Description

Proportion of boards of trustees members who are Māori.

What We Have Found

The proportion of boards of trustees who are Māori has increased since 1998.

Why This Is Important

Boards of trustees of state and state integrated schools must hold elections for parent and staff representatives every three years. A board may also decide to adopt a mid-term election cycle where half the number of its parent representatives are elected at a mid-term election (18 months after the triennial election) and the remainder are elected at the triennial election. Elections for student representatives are held annually in September in schools with students in Year 9 and above.

Triennial elections were held in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007. A by-election can occur at any stage in the election cycle if an elected trustee leaves the board and thereby creates a casual vacancy. Although the major changes in board membership occur in triennial election years, there is still some fluctuation in intervening years due to casual vacancies, by-elections, mid-term elections and annual student representative elections.

This indicator is a snapshot of the composition of boards of trustees as at 1 December of each year.

Active participation by Māori in planning, development and delivery of education services will help to ensure that those services are appropriate and effective for Māori. Māori representation on boards of trustees is one key mechanism for participation. Other mechanisms include Māori provider development, and Māori workforce development.

How We Are Going

The data here is presented as a proportion of parent elected, appointed and co-opted representative boards of trustees members.  Other members, such as school principals, staff representatives, student representatives and proprietors’ representatives are not included in this analysis.

In December 2007, 19.3% of the boards of trustees members included in this analysis were Māori.  This represents an increase of 27% from the proportion of Māori school trustees in 1998 (15.2%), and a 4.8% rise from the corresponding proportion in 2004.

Proportion of board of trustees members who are Māori (1998 to 2007)

The proportion of Māori on boards of trustees is lower than the proportion of Māori students in these schools (22.2% in 2007).  This is largely due to demographics; the proportion of the school age population who are Māori is considerably higher than the proportion of the population aged 25-50 who are Māori.  Nonetheless, this gap has narrowed between 1998 and 2007.

In 2007, Māori women accounted for 63.2% of all Māori trustee members in schools.  This represents a 4.2% increase from the proportion of Māori trustees in schools that were women in 1998 (60.6%).  In comparison, 46.3% of all non-Māori trustee members in 2007 were women.

Where To Find Out More

To obtain further information on Māori participation in providing education services, consider indicator:

• Kura kaupapa Māori and kura teina schools
  

To obtain information on the proportion of Pasifika representatives, consider indicator:

• School Trustees who are Pasifika

References

Mill, A. (2007). Results of the School Board of Trustees Elections: 2007. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education (2004): Working in Partnership: Information for New School Trustees 2004 – 2007. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Related Pages on Education Counts

The Boards of Trustees data collection page provides links to data, publications and indicators based on that collection.