Improving educational outcomes for Māori and Pasifika children through technology

Daniel and Lesieli Oliver founded Lālanga, an organisation dedicated to helping Māori and Pasifika students. Photo / Supplied

While the world was in lockdown in August 2020, Lesieli Oliver founded Lālanga, an organisation dedicated to helping Māori and Pasifika students become more engaged with their education.

At the time Oliver was frustrated that with the advancement of modern technology, Māori and Pasifika were still struggling and falling behind in every education milestone.

With her husband Daniel Oliver the couple have launched mentoring programmes, technology and resources such as the Lālanga ‘tool boxes’ to empower Māori and Pacific children to succeed in their education.

Lesieli Oliver is a proud Tongan and migrated with her family to New Zealand, aged 4. This had had a considerable influence on her motivation to dedicate her career to the next generation of Māori and Pasifika children.

“We migrated to NZ in 1987 and my parents had a dream that we would become well educated. I grew up experiencing hardship and poverty. Both my parents left school before the age of 14, they were factory workers, so they were trying their best to provide opportunities for us,” Lesieli Oliver said.

“I’ve had to overcome some serious barriers. It’s only because of the help of others that I’ve been able to succeed. I’m passionate about my work because I know what it’s like to live in hardship, I know what it’s like to struggle.

“I love my work because every day I get to empower and motivate our young Māori and Pasifika, ensuring that they take hold of the most powerful tool to change their life, education.”

The Lālanga tool box has taken South Auckland schools by storm. This resource is a learning aid to help teachers provide engaging, culturally relevant, NZ curriculum-aligned content to their classroom.

The Olivers’ recognised that teachers are often time poor and under resourced and created the tool box as an extra layer of support in the classroom to improve student attendance, engagement, achievement, positive learning behaviour and wellbeing

“The Lālanga tool box idea was created in our Master of Technological Futures (MTF) research at academyEX. We were drawn to the hands-on nature of the course and academyEX’s desire to make meaningful change,” Dan Oliver said.

“I was looking for innovative solutions to solve some of the chronic problems relating to education (and) academyEX allowed me to take the frustration of a problem, research it so I could understand it, and create an innovative solution to solve the problem.

“My research topic focused on how we can use technology to improve outcomes for Māori and Pasifika students, focusing on the problems of attendance, engagement, wellbeing and positive learning behaviour,” Lesieli said.

Lālanga’s 2024 tool box will be used daily by 3500 children in South Auckland and the Olivers’ goal is for the tool box to be used by 100,000 Kiwi children. The tool box is making a difference every day with 85 per cent of educators in the programme reporting improved student attendance, achievement, wellbeing, and positive learning behaviour for their students.

Lālanga recently launched their fundraising campaign to help get the tool box into schools and in the hands of children that need it. About $200 gives one student full access to the Lālanga tool box programme for a year.

People can donate to support Lālanga and its tool box through this link - https://give.lalanga.co.nz/