Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia

Kia ora whānau.

We want New Zealand to be the best place in the world for children and young people. We know that happy, healthy kids learn better. We know that children and young people who feel safe and confident in themselves and their learning environments engage better and are more likely to achieve in education, work and life. We also know that our education system has historically underserved Māori learners and that we have to do better.

We have been working on an education work programme over the last three years to support this direction of travel by building on the hard work of our educators and whānau and ensuring our education system is fit for purpose for 21st-century learning.

As part of this work, we have refreshed our Māori Education Strategy (Ka Hikitia) and our Māori Language in Education Strategy (Tau Mai Te Reo).

We want to provide clear direction about the importance of Māori enjoying and achieving education success as Māori, and what we are doing to support this.

In the Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation that we have undertaken over the last three years, we heard consistent and familiar messages from whānau:

• learners and whānau must be at the heart of our education system
• Māori learners must be free from racism, discrimination and stigma
• Māori are diverse and we need an education workforce with the right skills and capability to respond to all Māori learners
• identity, language and culture matter
• Māori want to exercise agency and authority in education
• we have incorporated these key messages into the vision and principles of Ka Hikitia and Tau Mai Te Reo.

We have also connected this work with the Maihi Karauna (the Crown’s Māori Language Strategy).

It is important that the Ministry of Education and education agencies give effect to Ka Hikitia and Tau Mai Te Reo.

The need to provide high-quality services and support for Māori learners and whānau will be particularly important as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategies set out clear actions for agencies that build on our recent investments in Māori education including:

Over $200m increased support for Kōhanga Reo in Budget 2019 and Budget 2020, to strengthen the network and improve pay for kaimahi.
$51m over four years to support Māori Learners and Whānau to engage better with local education providers.
Increased funding for te reo Māori ($150m announced in Budget 2020) to support the identity, language and culture of Māori learners.
Te Hurihanganui ($42m announced in Budget 2019). This kaupapa reboots and expands Te Kotahitanga and is being rolled out over six communities.
We are also updating our legislative and regulatory frameworks to give effect to the key ideas of Ka Hikitia and Tau Mai Te Reo.

There is more work to do. We need to continue the conversation with whānau, hapū and iwi about what is important for them in Māori education and te reo Māori.

We need to get alongside local education providers and work with them to identify how things are currently for Māori learners, what is working well and how we can do better. This means that Ka Hikitia and Tau Mai Te Reo will need to be living documents that we can update regularly.

With Ka Hikitia and Tau Mai Te Reo, we are laying the foundation for ongoing conversations about how we can achieve the best outcomes for learners and whānau so New Zealand can truly be the best place in the world for tamariki and rangatahi Māori.

Kia kaha ki a tātau.