From Stuff.co.nz
Ex Weatherman, now NZ First candidate. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire
Former TV weatherman walks into a storm
NZPA | Thursday, 11 September 2008
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Opotiki College has reacted angrily to a statement by New Zealand First candidate Brendan Horan that 60 per cent of its Maori students leave school with no qualifications.
Mr Horan made the claim in Opotiki yesterday at an East Coast candidates meeting for this year's election, for which a date has still not been set.
"Sixty per cent of Maori students at Opotiki College come out with no qualifications," Mr Horan, former TV One weather man, told told 40 members of Opotiki Grey Power.
He used the figure to demonstrate how important it was to address inequality in society.
But acting Opotiki College principal Robyn Abraham-Harris said she would like to know where Mr Horan got his information and whether he checked it first.
"It is very unfair to make us a political football," she said.
Of 108 Maori students who left Opotiki College in 2007, 34 per cent (37 students) "had little or no formal education". Of the remainder, 19 students had NCEA level 1, 42 students had NCEA level 2, and 10 students obtained NCEA level 3.
"The staff and students at Opotiki College pride themselves on our academic achievement and to have a potential politician use us to score points is unacceptable," Mrs Abraham-Harris said.
"At the very least I would expect a public apology. I am certainly going to challenge him personally to back up his statement."