An independent Government-commissioned review into a te reo Māori course that has just had its funding cut found the programme was in high demand, its providers were “exceptional” and engagement from participants was “outstanding”. 

$30 million in funding has been shifted from the Te Ahu o te Reo Māori programme – which provides te reo Māori lessons to school teachers – to a fund providing mathematics resources for students. 

Education Minister Erica Stanford, who made the cuts, said the programme is not delivering as desired, is 2.3 times more expensive than comparable courses, has low attendance rates and lacks evidence of tangible effects on students. 

“This is about a very expensive, poorly performing contract,” Stanford said. 

“There were many, many things wrong with this contract and I’m not playing a blame game, but we can do better. We can contract better and get better value for money.” 

In announcing the cuts on September 26, Stanford referenced an evaluation which found the programme was performing poorly. 

She told the Herald she had given “a lot of weight” to this particular report in making the decision to cut the programme’s funding. 

This report, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, was publicly released on Monday and does not include any analysis of the cost of the course in comparison to other programmes or accurate data on attendance rates. 

The report’s findings include: 

- The programme is “very popular” with “outstanding engagement from the sector” – one provider has a waiting list twice the size of their annual allocation. 

- 87% of participants said the programme helped them build the confidence they needed to use te reo Māori in the classroom. 

- 77% said the programme supported them to apply tikanga in education settings. 

- 97% would recommend Te Ahu o te Reo Māori to others. 

- 79% said they were keen to take another Te Ahu o te Reo Māori course. 

- Participants faced challenges knowing how to implement what they had learned in a way that was appropriate for their students. 

- Enrolments beyond level three were “likely to be for personal interest and fulfilment rather than the development of their teaching practice”. 

- Report points to shortfalls in Ministry of Education’s data collection including “significant information gaps” in the documentation collected on the programme. 

- Providers asked for “clear directives” on the analytics the ministry required on participant numbers and engagement but were left to figure it out themselves. Issues like this led to inconsistencies across providers, ultimately making it harder to measure the performance of the wider initiative. 

Along with the report, Stanford said another reason for deciding to cut the funding was that the programme was not NZQA-accredited meaning participants would not have gained a qualification at the end of their training. 

Stanford says she had received additional data from the Ministry of Education showing course completion rates were around 60%. The Herald has requested a copy of this report. 

There are 13 Te Ahu o te Reo Māori providers around the country. These include one of the country’s largest iwi, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, as well as Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology and the Eastern Institute of Technology. 

The 18-month review found the programme’s “greatest strength” was its “outstanding programme providers”. 

“Te Ahu o te Reo Māori has engaged a cohort of exceptional providers to deliver this initiative. Combined, these providers have an extraordinary level of experience and expertise in the development and delivery of high-quality Māori language programmes. 

“Participants were nearly unanimous in their glowing reviews of providers and their programmes, with most noting the providers’ outstanding skills in delivering engaging and effective learning opportunities.” 

The report said the providers had engaged their “extensive networks” to benefit the wider programme. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell 

This included drawing on “connections with iwi and hapū to meet the ministry’s expectations for iwi involvement” or relationships with schools and other learning settings to attract and retain participants or “reaching into their Māori language communities to engage and develop high-quality facilitators”. 

Stanford, when presented with the positive participant reviews of the programme, said: “well it’s a shame that only 60% of them finished the course”. 

She said: “That is qualitative data, the quantitive data, the really important data, is what was the impact on the child in the classroom, and can you ever evidence that it was actually being used in the classroom, and the report cannot do that. 

“Qualitative data has got its place but actually some people saying they liked it is not good enough for me. I want to know that it had an impact on the child in the classroom, this report does not do that.” 

The minister said conversations were under way with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa about potentially providing courses for the education sector to replace Te Ahu o te Reo Māori. 

Stanford said teachers could apply for a spot on one of the free te reo courses provided by Te Wānanga in the meantime. 

The full Ministry of Education report can be found here - Te Ahu o te Reo Māori Evaluation. 

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.