The Wire with Joel

Today marks 50 years since the Maori Language petition was delivered to parliament, with more than 30,000 people calling for te reo Māori to be taught in schools.

This Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori, Education union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the government to increase funding for te reo in schools. 

To get insight into these calls, as well as to discuss the importance of using te reo in education, Emilia spoke to President of NZEI Te Riu Roa Liam Rutherford.

Aotearoa’s education system has been criticised recently for taking a one size fits all approach one it comes to accommodating for neurodivergent students. 

Students dealing with dyslexia, autism, and ADHD amongst other conditions have been struggling under the current numeracy and literacy standards that don’t work with their forms of thinking.

Activists have recently been highlighting the negative effects this can have on students long term, seeing aspects of their mental health diminished and rates of anxiety and depression heightened. 

To learn more, Liam spoke to Anton Ashcroft from Divergent Thinking NZ about what needs to be changed. 

The Cuban Missile Crisis is often framed in terms of the significance of interactions between the then Soviet Union and United States. However, Cubans have agency and a story to tell about the events that occurred in their own state. Stella speaks to Cuban Ambassador to New Zealand, Mr. Edgardo Valdés López, about the Cuban perspective and the sanctions that the US still hold against Cuba to mark the 60th anniversary of the event.

This week on the Tuesday Wire, Allan Blackman joined Casper and Christina in the studio to talk science news for our Dear Science segment.

Casper spoke to Dr Shane Reti for their weekly catchup about emissions reduction goals and the impact of monetary policy on mortgage holders.

With COP27 taking place, Christina spoke to Dr Kevin Trenberth, a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Colorado, about whether climate reparations are the way to go.

Casper also talked to Dr Tim Welch from the UoA’s school of architecture and planning about the ‘bike or scoot and ride’ project being trialled in Panmure.

And Christina spoke to Alice Hayward, spokesperson for the campaign to Ban the Boom, about fireworks sales after Guy Fawkes weekend.