21 March 2016

MEDIA RELEASE

Multicultural NZ: Boards of trustees fail to reflect diversity of students in Hamilton

Hamilton City’s school boards of trustees do not adequately represent the diversity of their students, says Multicultural New Zealand.

Just over half of Hamilton’s school children are of Maori, Pacific, Asian and other non-European ethnicities, but all these groups are under-represented on school boards of trustees in the city.

Education Ministry statistics indicate that the city’s growing Asian student population (not counting international students) is among the most under-represented. According to the Ministry’s website, Education Counts, there were 3,374 Asian students in Hamilton schools last year, making up 11.34 per cent of the total number of students. But only 1.6 per cent of school trustees identified as Asian.

Multicultural New Zealand is calling on Hamilton schools to make a special effort to connect with all their diverse communities before the coming school board of trustees elections in May, and to encourage them to nominate candidates and vote in the elections.

The full figures for Hamilton schools are:

Hamilton City Council area, school trustees:
Maori: 111 (25.75%)
Pacific: 11 (2.55%)
Asian: 7 (1.62%)
Other/Not Stated: 28 (6.49%)
European: 274 (63.57%)
Total 431

Hamilton City Council area, students:
European: 14,522 (48.82%)
Maori: 9069 (30.48%)
Pacific: 1542 (5.18%)
Asian: 3374 (11.34%)
MELAA (817 (2.74%)
Other 102 (0.34%)
International students: 319 (1,07%)
Total: 29,745

ENDS

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