Iwi advocate’s lobbying results in major scholarship effort

MEDIA STATEMENT
Nga Kaikokiri Matauranga – Iwi Advocate for Education
3 October 2013

Iwi advocate’s lobbying results in major scholarship effort

Nga Kaikokiri Matauranga is pleased to see that its lobbying has helped convince the Government to invest more in teachers who speak te reo Maori.

“Our schools, communities and iwi have been screaming out for teachers who speak the language as well as teachers who can teach from a Maori pedagogy for some time now and we’re pleased that our three years of lobbying the Ministry of Education has resulted in a high number and high value of scholarships being made available,” said NKM spokesman Awanui Black.

“No child, especially a Maori child, should be told they can’t learn the language or another subject in the language, at school because there’s no one to teach them but that’s what has been happening.

“If we are to lift so many of our Maori children out of educational poverty then we must grow Maori medium education and the only way that can be done is to grow the number of teachers who can teach in the language.”

Mr Black said children in Maori medium education, such as kura kaupapa or kura a iwi, were more likely to gain academic qualifications at both secondary and university level than Maori children in English medium education, such as primary and high schools.

An increase in the number of kura over the next 20 years was also likely, as a result of the growth in qualified teachers who speak the language, said Mr Black.

“With more than 300 new teachers of the language likely to come through because of these scholarships, and the population of Maori children forecasted to grow to 28 percent of all New Zealand children by 2021, it’s not a question of whether there’ll be more kura but when.”

The Government has set aside about $9 million for more than 300 TeachNZ scholarships to encourage speakers of the Maori language, and non-speakers who are of Maori descent, to gain teaching qualifications so they can work in early childhood, primary and secondary schools as well as kura. Applications for most of the scholarships opened on October 1 and will close early November 2013.

ENDS

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