Southern Transformation Searching for Success in South Auckland

There are two Aucklands. One is the educated, urbane beneficiary of social capital and educational investment. The other is apparently an educational wasteland, its dysfunctions threatening to sink Auckland’s economic future. To many, South Auckland is an intractable public policy problem—if only we could ‘fix’ the south, its inequalities would disappear and not only Auckland, but Aotearoa, would be richer and more comfortable for it. There is another side to South Auckland. It is home to both the well-established and the migrant. It delivered the first mayor to Auckland’s supercity, who sold a vision for transforming the south into an economic powerhouse—a vision now embedded in the city’s strategic plans. But will social and economic transformation actually be delivered? How?

Bernardine Vester is a New Zealand Eisenhower Fellow. As foundation chief executive of the City of Manukau Education Trust (COMET), she led work on new models for family literacy, participation in early learning, school–business connections, youth transitions and community engagement in learning.