File photo. Photo: 123rf
Two teenagers living in rural Hawke's Bay are hitch-hiking to school after their bus route was canned.
The Brown whanau lives on a family farm on Aropaoanui Road, which connects to State Highway Two north of Napier.
They are about 50 kilometres from Tamatea High School, where the teens are part of a te reo Māori immersion programme.
Fifteen-year-old Chamon and Laa, 16, previously got the bus there and back each day, but the route has been axed. And while Laa has secured a regular ride to the school, Chamon has been forced to put his thumb out for a ride every school day.
The Ministry of Education reviewed hundreds of routes last year, ditching some and merging others. In most cases, to get ministry-funded school transport assistance there has got to be eight or more students using the bus and kids need to be going to the closest state or integrated school.
The teens' father Mike Brown conceded that Tamatea High School was not their closest, but the other school is only a few more kilometres away and does not have the language programme.
He told Checkpoint he was surprised to discover the route had been cancelled.
"Last year, at the end of the term, just before Christmas, the kids said to me there was no school bus and I just took it that they were joking, and it wasn't until Monday that I realised they were serious."
Brown said his children started hitch-hiking this week.
"The ride that my daughter got picked up on, that family actually had room just for her to get to her school, and she befriended those people and they can take her regularly to school, but my son still has to hitch-hike."
He said he had to drive the 13 kilometres down their shingle road to SH2, where he would wait while Chamon holds a sign up and thumbs a car down.
"He has a cellphone with him, I normally take a photo of the car he hops into and I get him to ring me when he gets dropped off."
He said it was a challenging situation, "especially for him as well, it probably affects his school work".
Driving the teens all the way to their school and picking them up again would take about three hours every day.
"That's a big chunk out of my day and I'm a solo parent and having to run the family farm as well."
Brown said his children had been enrolled in Kōhanga Reo since they were three, and he wanted them at a school where they can pursue their Māori learning.
"It's only about four (kilometres) different where the ministry would pay the subsidy, and there excuse was it wasn't the nearest school to my farm.
"It's like you're talking to a brick wall."
In a statement, Ministry of Education spokesperson James Meffan said transport assistance was only available to eligible students and could take the form of a place on a bus, or a conveyance allowance.
He said the ministry has to apply its policy consistently to "ensure limited school transport funding is allocated fairly and efficiently".
Meffan said if the students were enrolled (specifically) in the Level 1 or 2 Te Reo Māori immersion unit at Tamatea High School, they would be eligible to apply for a conveyance allowance.
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