Te Reo a Mandatory Subject for Teachers:
So we now have the Teaching Council saying that it’s likely one day all teachers will need to know the Māori language and we see an article by John McDonald in the NZ Herald saying that Te reo Māori is not going to be a nice-to-have in the years to come, it’s going to be essential.
McDonald says in his article;
“Now, as far as I’m concerned, what the Teaching Council is saying makes perfect sense. Of course teachers are going to have to up their game on the Te reo front.
And that’s not because it’s the right thing to do, or because it’s politically correct, or because it’s fashionable. Or whatever other reason those anti it might want to throw around.
Teachers are going to at least be proficient in all things Māori because it’s not 1975 anymore and, in the years to come (if not already), Te reo is going to be just as much a part of literacy in this country as anything else.
You don’t have to love the idea if you don’t love it. But, at the very least, we all have to recognise that – in the future – if you want to be considered literate in this country, then sticking your head in the sand when it comes to Te reo Māori isn’t going to be an option.
And that’s why what the Teaching Council is saying shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. If anything, we should be applauding the Teaching Council for saying it.
If your child or grandchild wants a job in the public sector, they’ll go straight to the front of the queue if they speak Te reo. If your child or grandchild wants to work for some of the big legal and engineering firms, or in the health sector, they’ll go straight to the front of the queue if they speak te reo.
If your child or grandchild wants to get into politics – again, they’ll be at the front of the queue if they can speak Te reo. If that wasn’t the case, then you wouldn’t have people like National Party leader Christopher Luxon learning Te reo, would you?
That’s why the Teaching Council is saying what its saying. It’s just being realistic and saying what’s going to be needed if we want a teaching profession that can truly prepare our kids for the real world of tomorrow.
The sooner we get our heads around that, the better. Because, as far as I’m concerned, being literate in this country isn’t always going to be about reading and writing and speaking English, and nothing else.
It’s also going to be about familiarity – at the very least – with Te reo Māori which, I needn’t remind you, is an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Well you may call me a doomsayer, a racist, a dinosaur etc. But what you say will not alter the fact that McDonalds prediction that;
“as far as I’m concerned, being literate in this country isn’t always going to be about reading and writing and speaking English, and nothing else.
It’s also going to be about familiarity – at the very least – with te reo Māori which, I needn’t remind you, is an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand.”
McDonald is so far removed from reality that it is actually dangerous, particularly when you have him as a journalist being able to promote his personal opinion in one of the largest newspapers in the country.
I wonder how much the Public Interest Journalism Fund affected his opinion on this matter, considering that it requires all recipients to promote the Government’s propaganda in relation to their interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi and their consequent acceptance of a non-existent partnership requirement based on the Treaty.
In a recent letter to the Bay of Plenty Times from Greg Newbold, Professor Emeritus, University of Canterbury, which was not published, he states the following:
As someone who has just finished a 32-year lecturing career at Canterbury University, I can see some major problems with this proposal.
1. Teaching 64,000 teachers how to speak Maori properly, and then providing the resources (language labs, etc) for them to instruct 750,000 children to speak the language would be immensely time consuming and expensive. I spent two years studying Maori at university level and there is no way that I would consider myself a competent Maori speaker. Proficiency in any language takes years of study and constant immersion in the culture it pertains to. Dilettantism leads to corruption of the language.
2. If all teachers were forced to become fully competent in Maori, and then to impart that skill in the classroom, it would have to take place at the expense of other subjects. The recent drop in numeracy and English literacy standards of school leavers in New Zealand has been well publicised. A recent study found that 40 percent of students who get NCEA level 2 are not functionally literate (or numerate). This was a problem I faced constantly at the University of Canterbury, where even 2nd and 3rd year students did not understand the basics of English grammar and could not even put proper sentences together. Diverting time away from learning essential English literacy skills will only confound this problem. It is better for students to be able to speak and write at least one language well, than two languages badly.
3. New Zealand is not a bi-cultural nation, it is multi-cultural. There are six major ethnic groups in New Zealand and 18 major languages are spoken. Most speakers of non-English languages in this country are already bi-lingual. If they wish their children also to be enriched by bilingualism, they should be free to select a second language of their choice. Often it will be the language of the culture they belong to, not of the culture of somebody else.
4. New Zealand is a small nation tucked away at the Southern extremity of the Pacific Ocean. As such we are increasingly dependent on international contacts in trade, politics and popular culture. In terms of career advantages, competency in the languages of our major trading partners and political allies is therefore essential. In order of importance these languages are English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian. Competency in Maori provides no career advantages on the global stage.
5. New Zealand’s skills shortages in areas like health, teaching, engineering and so on are well known. Requiring knowledge of Te reo as an essential prerequisite to these areas of employment would inevitably stifle the influx of essential workers to this country and worsen our skills deficits. Alternatively if, in the future, knowledge of Te reo could automatically push a candidate to the front of a job queue, as John MacDonald suggests should happen, highly qualified engineers, medical specialists, economists and managers would be shunted aside by people whose only real qualification was proficiency in Maori. The result would be institutionalised dumbing-down and systemic incompetency at high levels. This would be a disaster for our country.
New Zealand’s education system is certainly in a state of crisis and we face chronic shortages in essential skills areas, but mandating the teaching of Maori in schools will do nothing to solve the problem.
I agree with Professor Newbold totally and I would say to Mr. McDonald that he should study the difference between having a need for something and wanting something. There is currently a huge push for all things Maori within New Zealand with most of this being led by the so-called Maori Caucus in government. While it may be wonderful to want to preserve Te Reo and I personally don’t disagree with this, it must be recognised that fluency in Te Reo will never be something that will advance New Zealand or its people on the world stage.
The requirement for people to be fluent in Te Reo is something that many may want but it is not something that we need to survive. The only country in the world where some of the people speak Te Reo is New Zealand and even there the numbers that are fluent in Te Reo are much lower than the number of Maori on the electoral rolls.
New Zealand is a small nation tucked away at the Southern extremity of the Pacific Ocean. As such we are increasingly dependent on international contacts in trade, politics and popular culture. In terms of career advantages, competency in the languages of our major trading partners and political allies is therefore essential. In order of importance these languages are English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian. Competency in Maori provides no career advantages on the global stage.
New Zealand’s skills shortages in areas like health, teaching, engineering and so on are well known. Requiring knowledge of Te reo as an essential prerequisite to these areas of employment would inevitably stifle the influx of essential workers to this country and worsen our skills deficits.
Alternatively if, in the future, knowledge of Te reo could automatically push a candidate to the front of a job queue, as John MacDonald suggests should happen, highly qualified engineers, medical specialists, economists and managers would be shunted aside by people whose only real qualification was proficiency in Maori. The result would be institutionalised dumbing-down and systemic incompetency at high levels. This would be a disaster for our country.
It is now widely known that our education system is a mess and many schools – etc – are simply not fit for purpose.
When questioned recently in parliament on Term 1 attendance figures Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti deflected by saying that it is Term 2 figures that matter and will show the effects of government policy.
Well the Term 2 statistics are out and are much worse with less than 40% of students regularly attending across all deciles. Decile 1 full attendance is sitting at 23.4%.
Tinetti blamed Covid but Asian full participation is above 50% whereas Maori or Pasifika is at 27% or less. Is that difference in the numbers really a result of Covid, surely Covid is not racist in its spread?
These attendance figures are a monumental failure that should result in Tinetti’s resignation and those at the top of the Ministry of Education whose email footnote states: “We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes.”
Add to this the results from the new NCEA Literacy and Numeracy credit that show just 2% of Decile 1 students passing the writing standards. Keep in mind that this is after approximately 12,000 hours of funded schooling per student. 33% of Maori students are leaving school in South Auckland without even Level 1 NCEA.
It is time for all parents across NZ to ask the hard questions about school leadership, school quality, teacher quality and to demand a LOT better.
And how trivial for the Education Review Office to say that schools should make attending more “enjoyable” (aka fun). How about – inspirational, aspirational, high quality, demanding … Is it any wonder NZ’s school attendance is at least 15% behind Australia’s.
The only thing achieved by making Te Reo mandatory for all teachers is to embed the theory of Apartheid into our education sector and to take away more valuable teaching resources from both our teachers and their students.