In the event of failure, children were held back to redo the year, with their results documented in the newspaper, causing added embarrassment. These exams were remained until 1904, when they were no longer seen as fair (Wilson, 2012). In the same year nature study was added to the curriculum, so was a more New Zealand context (Wilson, 2012). Maori children, and Maori schools, or native schools as they were so named, were excluded from the 1877 Education Act, and would be left this way until the 1960s when there was a new acceptance towards Maori people (Holst, 1971). For this reason, Maori children were dealt with in one of two ways; either they attended the same schools as Pakeha children, which were controlled by a variety of education boards (Holst, 1971). It is important to note here that many Pakeha children were intolerant of Maori children, so many of them felt uncomfortable at them, as to be expected (Holst, 1971). Alternatively, Maori children went to Maori schools, which were controlled by the Department of Education, but had a different set of controls on them; which included staffing and curriculum (Holst, 1971). .
There were few changes to the Maori syllabus which began in 1881 and there were few changes in the fifty years before it was made fully the same as the Pakeha syllabus in 1928 (Holst, 1971). Prior to 1912, 50 percent of Maori children were educated in these schools, furthermore, it is estimated that thousands of other children were in areas too remote to access education (Holst, 1971). It was clear from both systems that the main aim was to control the Maori population, which is a key aspect of New Zealand, and is in no way limited to education. Furthermore, for many children in these schools Maori was their first language, teachers were not given language or cultural courses to better instruct the students, nor were students taught the basics of the English language, they were simply expected to know it.
