Harmony Te Raki, 21, says she still feels the impact of being put in the “cabbage class”.
Pressure is building to end academic streaming following a new report that shows the practice disadvantages Māori students.
Harmony Te Raki moved from a kura kaupapa into a mainstream high school because she believed it would give her better opportunities. Not long after starting in Year 9, Harmony was told by her classmates that she was in the "cabbage class" – the lowest stream.
“I got put straight into the cab class based on the fact that I went to a kura kaupapa school,” she says. “I just got told that I was cabbage, that I was dumb. I just started falling into it.”