Shortage of Maori teachers felt

‘‘You can only do so much with your aroha, for aroha.’’ Resource Teacher of Ma¯ ori Tiri Bailey (above)

When a primary school put a call out for a new Maori language teacher, only one person applied.

It came as no surprise to Resource Teacher of Ma ori Tiri Bailey, who said there was a countrywide shortage of specialist Maori teachers, and it was only going to get worse.

Bailey, who supports Taranaki schools to deliver Maori programmes, said people with a proficient level of te reo Maori were no longer choosing to train as teachers.

Similar to the issues currently facing mainstream educators, she said an overfilled curriculum, stressful conditions and low pay had made the industry unattractive.

‘‘Many of our young Maori that go to university and qualify, within a couple of years they’re out of teaching because they’ve gone on to higher paid work,’’ she said.

‘‘You can only do so much with your aroha, for aroha.’’

Bailey, who has been teaching for more than 40 years, is based at Waitara East School which boasts a bilingual unit of three classrooms.

About 55 tamariki are currently enrolled in the unit, where the content is delivered in 50 to 80 per cent te reo Ma ori.

While the classrooms are all currently staffed, she said it hadn’t been easy to fill their recent vacancy.

‘‘We’ve got a brand new teacher from Whakatane.

‘‘She was the only one we could find, the only one who applied.

‘‘She put something on Facebook in the teachers’ section wanting a job.’’

Bailey said the school would have to rely on relief teachers who did not speak te reo Ma¯ ori to step in if they were unable to fill the role.

‘‘Then they’re not getting the quality te reo Maori, that is needed or what their whanau expect.

‘‘We’ve looked at other ways of how we can have community within the schools, supporting, but then again you need qualified, trained people leading those initiatives.’’

Bailey said there were five trainees currently undertaking practical training at Te Pihipihinga Kakano Mai I Rangiatea kura kaupapa Ma ori in New Plymouth.

But, once qualified, that ‘‘was only an additional five’’ to add to the shallow pool of Maori medium educators, she said.

‘‘That isn’t going to cover much.’’

In Taranaki alone there were three kura kaupapa (full immersion), Waitara East’s bilingual unit a bilingual classroom at Manukorihi Intermediate School and Ramanui School, which all required Ma¯ ori medium educators.

‘‘And then some schools have enrichment classes.’’

Bailey said the future of te reo Ma¯ ori depended on tamariki still having access to immersion programmes.

Although, she acknowledged there were many teachers doing their bit to uphold te reo Ma¯ ori within mainstream education.

‘‘There are passionate staff who wish to improve their own knowledge,’’ she said.

‘‘I have some hope in the fact that teachers are going to te reo classes over and above their own work.’’