Kohanga row goes to meditation
Thursday 25th August, 2011
The Deputy Chair of Te Kohanga Reo National Trust says the trust is open to mediation with the Ministry of Education and Te Puni Kokiri.
The Waitangi Tribunal has asked for the talks to see if the three parties can rebuild their relationship without going through the full hearing the trust has requested.
Tina Olsen-Ratana says the trust feels it got a good hearing from the tribunal last week, but it's still concerned that the ministry will implement the recommendations of a ministerial inquiry into the early childhood sector, that was highly critical of the way many kohanga were run.
“Te Kohanga Reo National Trust or kohanga were not consulted in this report process which was supposed to be a review so there are factual inaccuracies contained within the report that are defamatory, puts kohanga in a bad light and they’re incorrect. We could have corrected that had we been consulted,” she says.
The tribunal wants a report on the progress of the mediation within three weeks.
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