The diminishing interest in science by young people in general and Maori in particular is concerning.
Radio NZ reports that Crown research Institute Plant and Food had no takers for scholarships offered to Maori students because it couldn’t find any interested in science.
After attending an Auckland University graduation ceremony for science students last year this doesn’t surprise me.
More than half receiving degrees were Asian or Middle Eastern, the next biggest group was Pakeha and there was just a sprinkling of Maori or Pacific grads.
Whatever the reasons for the apparent lack of interest in science, Plant and Food’s plan to offer scholarships to high school pupils make sense.
Those engaged in science at school are more likely to consider tertiary studies.
That might increase the chances of them going into agriculture which, given how land is under Maori ownership, would be a very good thing.
Homepaddock 
Why Maori in particular? Why not (we) Need more redheads in science?
The problem is of course that kids would rather watch videos in media studies classes than wrestle with differential equations in physics.
And of course when it comes to the examination it is far easier to wing it with PCisms when confronted with a question on the portrayal of Polynesians in the media than it is to prove that the maximum distance a cannon ball can be fired occurs when the barrel is set at 45° to the horizontal.
The examples given represent a tension that arose within my own household and a compromise position that was reached where Biology rather than Physics was exchanged for media studies.
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