About Pacific Immersion Teachers’ Allowance

The purpose of the Pacific Immersion Teachers’ Allowance (PITA) is to:

• give practical recognition to the revitalisation and protection of Pacific languages and cultures within New Zealand
• recognise the additional language and cultural competencies that teachers working in Pacific bilingual and immersion services have in order to teach the curriculum in their Pacific language
• support language-based education and care services to recognise, retain and attract certificated teachers with the additional language skills they require.

Who is eligible for the PITA

The PITA is available to all certificated teachers employed at licensed early learning education and care service that are:

• immersion (where a single Pacific language is used 81% to 100% of the time)
• bilingual (where a single Pacific language is used 51% to 80% of the time).

Services who use multiple Pacific languages are eligible if a single Pacific language is used to teach the curriculum at least 51% of the time for bilingual or 81% of the time for immersion. The service will be recognised as bilingual or immersion for that single Pacific language.

Eligible Pacific languages are those that are indigenous to the Pacific. This is the same definition used by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples and Statistics NZ.

Eligible Pacific languages include:

• Te Reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani | Cook Islands Māori
• Gagana Tokelau | Tokelauan
• Vagahau Niue | Niuean
• Gagana Samoa | Samoan
• Lea Faka-Tonga | Tongan
• Vosa Vaka-Viti | Fijian
• Te ‘Gana Tuvalu | Tuvaluan
• Te Taetae ni Kiribati | Kiribati
• Pukapukan | Pukapuka | Bukabuka
• Fäeag Rotuam | Rotuman
• Solomon Aelan Pijin | Solomon Islands
• Dorerin Naoero | Nauru
• Reo Tahiti | Tahiti
• the languages of Vanuatu
• Micronesian – not further defined
• Central Pacific – not further defined.

There is no requirement for language competency of individual teachers or fluency of individual children attending the service.

Licensed education and care services apply for the allowance on behalf of their certificated teachers. The funding is paid to eligible services. It must be passed on to teachers as an allowance on top of their salary.

The ECE funding handbook has more information about service and teacher eligibility.

5-3-2 Allowances for teachers in Pacific bilingual and immersion education and care services

Allowance rates and payment

The allowance rate we pay for each teacher depends on:

• the language level their service teaches at (immersion or bilingual)
• how many years of experience they have teaching in an immersion or bilingual environment.

The ECE funding handbook has the current PITA rates.

5-3-2 Allowances for teachers in Pacific bilingual and immersion education and care services

GST is added to the payment.

We cannot advise you on how the allowance relates to payroll-related processes. Go to your accountant, payroll provider or Inland Revenue (IRD) for advice.

Contact us – Inland Revenue

Payment schedule

The allowance is paid to your service monthly, in arrears.

Below is an indicative payment schedule for the PITA for 2024 and 2025.

How to apply for the PITA

You must apply during the application open dates. These are listed in the payment schedule.

Contact us to request an application form.

Email: [email protected]

Confirm service or teacher information each month

Each month, we will email you asking if there have been any significant changes at your service.

A significant change means a change to the employment agreement of a teacher. Changes that do not impact that agreement do not need to be provided to us.

If there have been changes, you must tell us by responding to our monthly email.

Changes could include:

• Teachers leaving the service.
• New teachers starting at the service.
• Changes in teacher experience bands (1 to 3, 4 to 6, or 7+ years).
• Formal change in teacher work hours.
• Change in service language level between bilingual and immersion.

If a teacher starts or leaves partway through a month, we will pay that teacher pro rata for the month.

More information

Resources for calculating experience and FTE

Services which received the PITA