Pākehā mum raising two children with te reo Māori says all schools should have the option

Jess Matthews and husband Anton (Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri) speak only te reo Māori with their children Mana Ariki, 4 (left) and Te Arīā Aroha, 6. Photo / Supplied

Schools across the country are trying to increase their te reo Māori capacity, but a shortage of teachers is hitting them hard. Advocates say only benefits can come from turning around the country's monolingual schooling system and call on the Government to do more. Michael Neilson reports.

Jess Matthews grew up as a "typical, middle-class Pākehā" in Christchurch, with limited knowledge of te reo Māori.

"I was pretty ignorant - it was just the world I was in."

Now she is a fluent speaker, and with her husband Anton Matthews (Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri) speaks only te reo with their two young children Te Ariā Aroha, 6, and Mana Ariki, 4.

The experience has opened Jess' eyes to the importance of everyone learning this nation's native language.

"It shows respect, and opens you up to the culture and history.

"When you walk into a place of Māori only speaking te reo, you realise what it might be like for Māori children in a Pākehā school system.

"Raising two children who speak Māori, I hate to think they might ever feel that kind of discomfort."

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Their daughter Te Ariā Aroha attends Te Kura Kaupapa Māori (TKKM) o Te Whānau Tahi, a full-immersion school, and Mana Ariki is to follow.

She and husband Matthew, who run restaurant FUSH together, which also actively promotes te reo, wanted their children to have a good grounding in their culture.

Jess said despite only speaking te reo in the home, their children's English language skills were just as good.

"As a mother of children who speaks te reo it would be my dream for it to be a core part of all schools."

Only about 2.5 per cent of the country's students were in Māori medium education (where over 50 per cent of tuition is in Māori) in 2018 - a 0.1 per cent increase on 2017.

As of July 2018, about 20 per cent of the total school population received no Māori language education, while about 56 per cent were learning simple words, greetings or songs.

Overall the number of students learning Māori had increased by about 30,000 since 2013.

New Zealand Educational Institute president Lynda Stuart said schools and teachers wanted to be able to increase their reo tuition, but they lacked capacity.

"There is absolutely a shortage. Those teachers with fluency are very well sought after, and it goes without saying that we need to increase our capacity."

NZ Educational Institute president Lynda Stuart said te reo should be taught in all schools, but teachers needed better support. Photo / File

Their organisation supported making te reo a core part of the curriculum, but said that needed to be accompanied by increased support for teachers.

At Newton Central School in Auckland nearly a third of its just over 300 students were in bilingual or full immersion te reo pathways, and te reo and tikanga was incorporated right across the rest of the school at a lesser level.

"Every week for us is Māori language week," principal Riki Teteina said.

Both students and parents were supportive of the school's approach, and Teteina said there were huge benefits to learning te reo at a young age.

"Learning another language opens up another part of the brain - it is something all schools should be able to do."

But while increasing numbers of students were wanting to join the Māori unit, they lacked the teaching capacity, Teteina saud.

"There is a massive teaching shortage anyway, but it is heightened in the Māori medium."

He supported work by the Government to increase teacher training but said it was a "drop in the bucket".

The Government plans to integrate te reo Māori throughout the curriculum in all schools by 2025, and its Maihi Karauna strategy plans to have one million Māori language speakers by 2040.

Associate Minister of Education (Māori) Kelvin Davis acknowledged there was a shortage in teaching, which he put down to neglect from the previous government.

Along with investment in teaching across the board, the Government had put aside $12.2 million over four years to support Te Ahu o te Reo Māori - a teacher training programme. So far 685 people had taken that opportunity, Davis said.

Davis said the Government wanted to "normalise" and "integrate" te reo in the curriculum, rather than making it compulsory.

"We've got the capacity issue with teachers and we also need to make sure we are bringing teachers along with us on this journey, in a non-threatening way."

Associate Education Minister (Māori) Kelvin Davis said the Government was making investments to boost te reo teaching capacity. Photo / File

Head of Auckland University of Technology's School of Language and Culture, Associate Professor Sharon Harvey said monolingual New Zealand students were being left behind in the world, and should be learning at least te reo Māori alongside English.

"You don't have to look far in the world to see many countries teaching children multiple languages to high levels. In Papua New Guinea some people speak eight languages."

Māori had put in "incredible effort" over the years through Kohanga Reo, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori, and wānanga, but there had been no national response.

"The discussion has long been should we put our resources into young Māori learning to a high level, or the whole country learning but not very much. But I think we need to do both."

Children were incredibly adaptive, Harvey said, and it should not be seen as adding another subject especially with children who might already be struggling.

"Literacy skills are transferable. If you learn Māori you are learning how to make connections, and these can be adapted in any language."