Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia | The Māori Education Strategy (English)

Māori are enjoying and achieving education success as Māori, as they develop the skills to participate in te ao Māori, Aotearoa and the wider world.

What is Ka Hikitia?

Ka Hikitia is a cross-agency strategy for the education sector. The agencies include the Ministry of Education, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, Education New Zealand, Education Review Office, New Zealand Qualifications Authority, The Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, Tertiary Education Commission, New Zealand School Trustees Association.

The education sector includes all early learning, schooling, and tertiary education provision.

It sets out how we will work with education services to achieve system shifts in education and support Māori learners and their whānau, hapū and iwi to achieve excellent and equitable outcomes and provides an organising framework for the actions we will take.

Guiding principles

Excellent outcomes: We will support Māori learners and their whānau to achieve excellent education outcomes
Belonging: We will ensure Māori learners and their whānau have a strong sense of belonging across our education system
Strengths-based: We will recognise and build on the strengths of Māori learners and their whānau
Productive partnerships: We will support strong relationships between learners and whānau, hapū, iwi, educators and others to support excellent outcomes
Te Tiriti o Waitangi: We will give practical effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the education system

These guiding principles set out how we will work across the education system to support the Ka Hikitia vision.

They have been adapted from Ka Hikitia 2013 and reflect enduring themes in Māori education.

The education system has underperformed for Māori learners and their whānau over an extended period. As a result, Māori learners collectively experience worse education outcomes than other New Zealand learners and are less engaged in our education system.

This has significant social, cultural, health and economic impacts for whānau, hapū, iwi, Māori and New Zealand as a whole.

Detailed data and research about the performance of the education system for Māori learners are available at Education Counts.

Education Counts(external link)

Ka Hikitia informs and is informed by the overall Education Work Programme:

Education Portfolio Work Programme

Our 30-year education vision and objectives

Whakamaua te pae tata kia tina – Take hold of your potential so it becomes your reality ...

We are descendants of explorers, discoverers and innovators who used their knowledge to traverse distant horizons.

Our learning will be inclusive, equitable and connected so we progress and achieve advances for our people and their future journeys and encounters

Whāia te pae tawhiti kia tata – Explore beyond the distant horizon and draw it near!

Objectives for education

Learners at the centre: Learners with their whānau are at the centre of education.
Barrier-free access: Great education opportunities and outcomes are within reach for every learner.
Quality teaching and leadership: Quality teaching and leadership make the difference for learners and their whānau.
Future of learning and work: Learning that is relevant to the lives of New Zealanders today and throughout their lives.
World-class inclusive public education: New Zealand education is trusted and sustainable.

The 30-year vision and objectives form the core of our overall approach to education.

To create change it is important to embed Ka Hikitia into this framework to ensure we are aligning vision, purpose and action within our education system to support Māori enjoying and achieving education success as Māori.

Outcome domains to support excellent outcomes for Māori learners and whānau

Te Whānau	Education provision responds to learners within the context of their whānau. We will support Māori learners and their whānau to be informed and demanding decision-makers, with high expectations of our education services. We will also support Māori learners and their whānau to plan and pursue the education pathways that they aspire to.
Te Tangata	Māori are free from racism, discrimination and stigma in education. Māori learners and whānau have identified racism as a major barrier in our education system. We will address this, provide equitable access to services, and in ways that promote fairness and are respectful and culturally appropriate so that Māori learners and their whānau have a strong sense of belonging.
Te Kanorautanga	Māori are diverse and need to be understood in the context of their diverse aspirations and lived experiences. Our education services will recognise and provide for Māori diversity. Our education workforce will have the right skills and capacity to support all Māori learners, including those with disabilities and learning support needs, to achieve excellent outcomes.
Te Tuakiritanga	Identity, language and culture matter for Māori learners. Our education services will support the growth and development of the Māori language. We will support the identity, language and culture of Māori learners and their whānau to strengthen belonging, engagement and achievement as Māori so that Māori learners can actively participate in te ao Māori, Aotearoa and the wider world.
Te Rangatiratanga	Māori exercise their authority and agency in education. Our education services will support whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori to exercise agency and authority over the education of Māori learners at all levels of the education system. We will support Māori to make decisions about the education of Māori learners. We will account to whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori for the education services we provide.

These outcome domains reflect key messages that we have heard from Māori over an extended period of time and our evidence base about what works for Māori.

Key measures

Ka Hikitia will be successful when:

Māori learners are engaged and achieving excellent education outcomes, and
Māori whānau, hapū and iwi are active partners with our education services in defining and supporting excellent outcomes for Māori learners.

Education services include early learning services, schools, kura, tertiary providers.

We will measure this through participation data, NCEA achievement data, NZQF achievement data (other achievement measures) and engagement surveys.

Feedback on Māori education – Kōrero Mātauranga(external link)

Measures for learners and their whānau

Te Whānau	Māori learners have high levels of attendance and participation in our education services. Māori whānau have regular and positive engagements with our education services.
Te Tangata	Māori learners and whānau feel a strong sense of belonging in our education system and are free from racism.
Te Kanorautanga	Māori learners are achieving excellent and equitable education outcomes. Our education workforce looks more like the population that it serves. It is skilled in engaging with Māori learners and whānau.
Te Tuakiritanga	Māori learners and whānau tell us they see and feel their identity, language and culture on a daily basis in our education services.
Te Rangatiratanga	Whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori are participating in and making decisions about the education of Māori learners.

Implementing the Ka Hikitia approach

Te Whānau: Education provision responds to learners within the context of their whānau	We will provide Māori learners and their whānau, with the right information, at the right time, through the right channels that enable them to make informed decisions about education. We will provide facilitation and brokerage support for Māori learners and their whānau, in ways that work for them, to ensure their voices are heard and responded to appropriately. We will support education services to develop their capability to engage with Māori learners and whānau in productive partnerships.
Te Tangata: Māori are free from racism, discrimination and stigma in education	We will set clear expectations for education services and the education workforce to eliminate racism in our education system. We will provide leadership and professional development to support education services to work to eliminate racism. We will support everyone participating in the education sector, including Māori learners and their whānau to “call out” racism, as we create professional and environmental norms that understand and prevent racism.
Te Kanorautanga: Māori are diverse and need to be understood in the context of their diverse aspirations and lived experiences	We will set and maintain professional standards for the education workforce that identify our expectations for how teachers will work with Māori learners and their whānau. We will provide initial teacher education and ongoing professional development to support the education workforce to achieve these standards. We will provide early and intensive support for Māori learners when this is needed.
Te Tuakiritanga: Identity, language and culture matter for Māori learners	We will provide high-quality Māori language education. We will incorporate Māori identity, language and culture into the teaching and curriculum for Māori learners. We will support the incorporation of Māori identity, language and culture into the day-to-day practices of our education services so that Māori learners can actively participate in te ao Māori, Aotearoa and the wider world.
Te Rangatiratanga: Māori exercise their authority and agency in education	We will support whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori to develop and lead Kaupapa Māori pathways within our education services. We will support whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori to participate in the governance and leadership of education services. We will grow the ability of education agencies and education services to give practical effect to the Kāwanatanga roles in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will monitor our performance and report to Māori learners and whānau so they can hold us to account.

Our approach to supporting high-quality Māori language education is further described in Tau Mai Te Reo (the Māori Language in Education Strategy) which is a companion document to Ka Hikitia.

It will be necessary to take a deliberate, long-term and coherent approach to implement the actions we have committed to in order to achieve the outcomes we are seeking.

We will need to prioritise some of these actions and our priorities will need to reflect the right balance of national policy settings and local contexts and circumstances.

We need to do the right things at the right time and in the right places. The Ministry of Education and education agencies will develop national, regional and local implementation plans with education services, iwi, and Māori communities at the regional and local levels, that will be monitored, reported and updated on a regular basis.

Last reviewed: 07 June 2024 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback