Teachers will continue to uphold te reo as a tāonga in their classrooms in spite of the Minister of Education’s decision to cut $30 million from Te Ahu o te reo Māori, a programme which develops teacher competency in te reo, NZEI Te Riu Roa says.
The Minister for Education, Erica Stanford, has announced that the funding will be cut and diverted into publishing maths workbooks because of the Government’s fast-tracking next year of the new maths curriculum.
NZEI Te Riu Roa president Mark Potter says that union members fought for years to have such programmes introduced and cutting funding to it was a mistake.
“The programme has helped both Māori and Pākehā kaiako and ākonga flourish in the reo and understanding of tikanga and te ao Māori. I speak to teachers and principals around the motu, and they say it’s helped boost their language confidence and proficiency, as well as challenging them. Our education system and our country is better off for being bilingual.”
An evaluation of the programme has shown it has positive impacts and was well implemented. An evaluation of the initial pilot published on Education Counts* in October 2020, states that:
“It is an opportunity for teachers to engage and understand a different worldview; to engage in cultural practices, narratives and histories relevant to Aotearoa and to the system that supports the education of all students. The programme has enabled teachers with different skills and knowledge, from different schools, and from different sectors to come together in a safe place to learn.”
*You can read the Education Counts evalutation report here.
Recent media releases
-
Major school union meetings start, as discontent grows across education
Educators feel undervalued and disrespected by the Government and will discuss their issues at more than 120 major school and learning support staff paid union meetings.
-
Cutting Māori words from educational books all part of slow erasure of reo Māori
Minister Stanford’s decision to ban nearly all Māori words from the Ready to Read Phonics Plus books series used in the early years of schooling is part of a wider pattern of…
-
Primary teachers reject ministry offer
Primary teachers have voted to reject a collective agreement offer from the Ministry of Education. The vote saw them overwhelmingly say 'no’ to the offer.