Assessment Results Good News For Students Learning In Te Reo Maori

Associate Education Minister Parekura Horomia said parents of children in total immersion Maori language schools can take heart from the latest assessment results for Maori primary school students.

The results released today by the Ministry of Education are based on the second series of assessments conducted by the National Education Monitoring Project on the achievement of Maori students. The assessments, conducted in 2000, measured pupils’ achievement levels in reading, speaking, music, and aspects of technology.

Mr Horomia said students did a selection of the same tasks, with the Maori immersion students assessed in Maori and other students assessed in English.

“The latest assessments show that in the majority of cases Maori immersion students did as well as or better than the Maori students learning in English. These follow similar results were reported last year for the 1999 assessments of science, art, and the use of graphs, tables and maps.”

“Often parents are taking a leap of faith putting their children into total immersion classes. They often worry about whether their children are keeping up with their peers. I think this report will put some of those concerns to rest,” said Mr Horomia.

The Minister said parents can be reassured by comments from report authors Terry Crooks and Lester Flockton, who are also the directors of the National Education Monitoring project.

“The authors say the results achieved by Maori immersion students were promising given the youthfulness of programmes and the challenges of assessing the same things in two different languages. The fact that Maori immersion programmes also have additional goals beyond the national curriculum requirements is another reason that the results are good news.”

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