Summary

This report outlines an 18-month, two-phase, independent evaluation of Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, a Ministry of Education initiative focused on the Māori language development of the education workforce.

This evaluation of Te Ahu o te Reo Māori was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to be conducted by an external evaluator between January 2023 and May 2024.

Te Ahu o te Reo Māori is a national initiative providing free learning opportunities exclusively for the education workforce and other individuals formally engaged with schools and other education settings. Te Ahu o te Reo Māori providers offer specialist courses catering to all levels of reo proficiency, in multiple regions throughout Aotearoa. The primary aim of the initiative is to support the Māori language development of the education workforce, to enhance the educational experience and outcomes of students throughout Aotearoa.

The nationwide rollout of the initiative began in July 2021, following a pilot programme between May 2019 and July 2020 in four regions. Between 2021-2024, Te Ahu o te Reo Māori was funded by an allocation from the Covid Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF), as part of Budget 2020. That allocation resourced a suite of five te reo Māori-focused initiatives, collectively named Te Pūtoitanga . Te Ahu o te Reo Māori is the largest of the five initiatives in the Te Pūtoitanga suite, receiving $108 million from the CRRF allocation across the 2021-2024 period.

Te Ahu o te Reo Māori has five strategic objectives:

1. To grow and strengthen an education workforce that can integrate te reo Māori into the learning of all ākonga and students in Aotearoa New Zealand.
2. Develop teacher competency, accelerate language acquisition, and inspire a passion to teach using te reo Māori and thus normalise the correct use of te reo Māori every day.
3. Lifting the capability of our education workforce (from early learning through to secondary school) to use te reo Māori correctly.
4. Every child in early learning and all levels of schooling has te reo Māori integrated into their learning.
5. To achieve systemic change across the education system so it directly supports the growth of te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori and is increasingly bilingual and bicultural.

Te Ahu o te Reo Māori also aligns with broader strategic goals related to Māori language revitalisation and education. Specifically, it supports the objectives of the Maihi Karauna (the Crown’s Strategy for Māori Language Revitalisation 2019-2023), by supporting the Crown to create the conditions for te reo Māori to be learned through our education system. It also aims to support the outcomes identified in Tau Mai Te Reo – the Māori Language in Education Strategy, and Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia, the Māori Education Strategy.