Review aims to benefit Maori language

Maori Affairs Minister Dr Pita Sharples says the real purpose of a value-for-money review of government expenditure on Maori language promotion is to ensure the survival of Maori language.

In a speech this morning to a national language conference at the Beehive, delivered entirely in Maori, Dr Sharples said the most successful programmes for revitalising te reo Maori, such as kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Maori, had come from the people themselves.

However, he said, once they became accountable to government, people complain that some of the strength of the programmes was lost.

In kaupapa Maori education, he said, staff were burdened down with regulatory requirements, there were not enough fluent and trained staff, and teacher training programmes saw kaupapa Maori schools as simply translating a mainstream curriculum into English.

Dr Sharples said these were the reasons why he initiated a review of the whole Maori language strategy and sector – to ensure that the money spent on language promotion was getting the best possible outcomes for the language.

He said he had told the review panel to leave no stone unturned in their search for the best ways to ensure the survival of Maori language. And he urged everyone involved in Maori language revitalisation to talk to the review panel on the issues they saw, and the solutions they proposed.

Dr Sharples told the hui the Cabinet supported the review, because Ministers are aware of the difficult decisions that must be made when kaupapa Maori are accountable for government funding. He said he looked forward to taking the review report back to Cabinet with recommendations from Maori people about how the future of te reo Maori can be secured.