• Maretta Tuasivi Solomon and Pulotu Arthur Solomon have been made Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
• Elizabeth Horgan has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of merit.
• Anne Miles has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

The Solomons co-founded the Pacific Peoples Learning Institute, Martin Hautus (MHI) in 1990.

MHI was established to cater for the growing number of predominantly Pasifika learners who were failing in mainstream education.

MHI has around 300 students each year and is considered a leading learning institute for the Pacific.

Elizabeth Horgan has worked at St Joseph's school in Otahuhu for more than 40 years.

For the last 22 years she has been the School's Principal.

She introduced the Reading Together Programme to South Auckland Catholic schools.

The programme fosters parents' involvement with their children's literary development.

Horgan is also involved with the Gladiators of Change programme, organised for parents from Otahuhu and Mangere to be more involved in their children's lives.

Anne Miles has made significant contributions to McAuley High School since becoming its principal in 2003.

She has spearheaded initiatives to raise academic achievement and the decile one school has seen outstanding improvements in NCEA and University Entrance results.

Using the findings of the master's thesis of one of her staff, she has also improved parental engagement with the school.

More than 500 family members were able to improve their skills and gain confidence, leading some into further education, employment or to volunteer for boards of trustees of other schools.

The school's pastoral care network has also been strengthened to provide a support network to enable all students to succeed.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

In his tribute to Mr. Buckley, Pulotu Selio Solomon, the Chief Executive Officer of Martin Hautus N.Z. said the decision was taken because of his outstanding service to education and the people of Samoa.

"Mr. Buckley's love for Samoa has been immense in teaching at Samoa College, Fa'atuatua College, Samoa Primary School, principal at Robert Louis Stevenson Primary School, but better known as the science, chemistry and English lecturer at NUS, Pat has been in Education for over 60 years in which around 30 of those years have been here in Samoa." Continue reading

The Institute targets school leavers over 15 and mature people looking for jobs, according to Pulotu Arthur Solomon, one of the founders and directors of the Institute.

He says "jobs" are at the heart of the institute's programmes.

In comparison with other tertiary institutes, M.H.I.'s point of difference is that they incorporate a work experience component into their programme with a view to employment at the successful completion of their certificates or diplomas.

The Martin Hautus Institute, The Pacific Peoples Learning Institute, was established by Pulotu Arthur and Maretta Solomon in 1990. They saw the divide in education for school leavers (who did not gain university entrance) and also mature learners.

They started with five students in Mangere, South Auckland just over 23 years ago and today have two campuses (Mangere and Onehunga) and a student body, which annually numbers over 300. MHI is a category 1 establishment and in 2011 was given a "highly confident" rating by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) for both self assessment and education outcomes during their Education Evaluation

Martin Hautus is named after two of Mr Solomon's close colleagues during his 21 years of teaching at De La Salle College. John Martin was a disciplinarian who was meant to spend two terms at the college but stayed for 10.

Brother Matthew Hautus was a Lasallian Brother who was keen on education and a scholar.

Source

• Samoa Observer
• Image: Samoa Observer