Nothing stopping schools offering te reo: Parata

ISSUING TE WERO: Hekia Parata laid down the challenge (wero) to provide children with the best education possible at the opening of Te Wero Maori Education Conference yesterday. Picture by Liam Clayton

FORMER Minister of Education Hekia Parata is passionate about te reo Maori, so much so that she and her family moved back to Ruatoria so her daughters could be brought up speaking the language.

At the opening of Te Wero Maori Education Conference Mrs Parata told of her time petitioning to get te reo Maori made an official language of New Zealand. She also helped get constitutional recognition of iwi in the census.

“Do I want our country to become Maori speaking? Absolutely. I have always said I would love our country to be bilingual but for that to happen won’t be by government decree. We have to speak te reo.

“There is nothing stopping you in your school offering te reo. You will be funded for it. For any full-time student who wants to take te reo, that student is funded — from kindergarten all the way through. If you want me to announce it, I’m announcing it.”

She is aware of the practicalities.

“There are 2500 schools in New Zealand and you would need two teachers for each school, so that is 5000 te reo teachers.

“At the moment we don’t have enough teaching staff for kura kaupapa.”

The theme of this year’s Maori Education Conference is “te wero” or the challenge, referring to challenges faced in many areas of education.

Mrs Parata said that when she became Minister in 2011, too many Maori were failing, especially boys.

Maori had a 43 percent pass rate for National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Level 2, meaning that more than half were leaving school without the minimum qualification.

Now, 75 percent of Maori are leaving school with a NCEA Level 2 pass, she said.

“Being Minister of Education was the best job I’ve ever had, and the hardest.”

She spoke about the necessity of having National Standards to provide a picture of whether a student was at the stage they should be.

“I’m absolutely for National Standards. You choose what they are taught, you choose how it’s taught, you choose when it’s taught. You choose what assessment tool you use. You choose how often you use those assessments and you report it.”

National Standards allowed teachers to see and capture progress.

“There are so many assessment tools available. These things help us to do the job better.”

“If you are miserable, get out of teaching. Our kids get one shot at a good quality education and they deserve to be around people who want to be there, people who are themselves growing their own practice, who are investing in their personal development, who are dissatisfied with not improving every day their own approach to teaching.”

Mrs Parata went on to sing the praises of the NCEA.

“I think the New Zealand qualifications framework is magnificent.

“The New Zealand education system, its architecture, is better than anywhere else in the world.”

Mrs Parata finished by offering a challenge.

“Every kid, every day, in every school should be getting the best education possible.

“Now I can’t make that happen but you can.”