Pita Sharples

Wellington, Sept 1 NZPA - Maori language education needs a different approach, Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says.

A Maori language hui is being held at Parliament today.

"There's 150 of them up there now deciding the future of our language which is really exciting, because they will decide, and I will have to take that mandate to the minister (of education) after and who knows how it is going to turn out," Dr Sharples told NZPA.

"When you spend your whole life fighting to save your language then you are driven and you all know the problems so it will be really good to hear the submissions they make."

Staff in Maori language education were bogged down with regulatory requirements and there were not enough fluent and trained teachers, he said. Teacher training programmes saw Maori language schools as simply translating the mainstream English curriculum.

He said he was not advocating for Maori providers to be less accountable but said different tests may be needed.

"The things that are saving Maori language are Maori knowledge initiatives, and once the Government owns it, it is treated like any other parcel and dictated to by the budget by restraints that don't apply to the method, and often they don't flourish as a result of that, or they fire for a while and can't expand."

More resources were probably needed but a different model was needed and Maori providers needed more autonomy, he said.

The quality of teachers needed to be improved.

"Some of them are learning Maori while they are learning to teach so the level of their language may not be sufficient."

A review of Maori language and strategy, previously started by Dr Sharples, would look at whether responsibilities, programmes, services and expenditure were co-ordinated and whether responsibilities rested with the right agencies.