Labour: Pasifika Education Centre doomed

Labour is criticising the government's reluctance to put in a bid for more funding for the Pasifika Education Centre, saying it will 'doomed'.

The Pasifika Education Centre is an organisation that advocates for generations of Pasifika people to achieve and share educational success in New Zealand.

The organisation provides information, tools and/or resources that are relevant to Pasifika, and delivers educational programmes that are responsive to the changing needs of Pasifika community, maximising individual achievement and are reflective of Pasifika cultural values.

Labour's Pacific Island Affairs spokesperson Su'a William Sio says the centre is doomed to close down this December,

"In a written question I asked the Minister [Minister for Pacific Peoples Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga] whether he would put a bid in for more money. His answer was a blunt no," Sio says.

Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga says the PEC will develop a strategy that focusses on Pasifika language and culture.

"Such a strategy will be meaningless without the $700,000 operational funding that's needed to deliver it," says Sio. "It's tragic that a centre that is close to the heart of Pacific people could be allowed to wither away.

"The Minister seems to have become so disconnected from the role PEC plays in promoting Pasifika languages and culture that he now refuses to fund it," he says.

"What's worse is the community knows he took a class from PEC and benefitted from their services and now seems to be taking the opportunity away from others," adds Sio

TechDay has reached out to both the office of Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and the Minister of Education.