Executive Summary

Ngā Haeata Mātauranga provides an overview of Māori education, from early childhood to the tertiary sector. This overview includes initiatives specifically directed to Māori, those focusing on te reo Māori and Māori immersion education, and also initiatives that are intended to support Māori students as part of broader education strategies aimed at raising their achievement.

The content of Ngā Haeata Mātauranga is largely driven by the Government's Māori Education Strategy, which links together key strands of work across all the Ministry's activities focused on improving Māori education outcomes.

This year's report in particular has a greater emphasis on describing what is actually happening in schools and communities, and on results illustrated through case studies included throughout the report. The report is divided across eight key areas (Sections 2-9) which the Ministry is working to influence in order to increase Māori participation and achievement in education.

Section 2: Increasing Māori participation in Early Childhood Education

One of the key outcomes for the Māori Education Strategy is to increase Māori participation in early childhood education. The Ministry has been working with whānau, communities and providers to ensure more Māori children are participating in early childhood education so that they and their whānau can enjoy the benefits. Some of the positive spin-offs for children, parents and whānau are shown in Case Study 1.

Supporting the quality and growth of Māori medium early childhood services is also a priority given the role these services play in providing early learning within a kaupapa Māori, whānau-based environment.

Section 3: Better Teaching for Māori Students

The Māori Education Strategy sets out challenging targets requiring substantial gains in the participation and achievement of Māori students over the next 20 years. Over 85 percent of Māori students are educated in the general school system.

Over the past year, to raise student achievement there has been a heightened emphasis on literacy and numeracy, professional development and growing capability to ensure quality schools and teachers, and recruiting and retaining more Māori teachers. There has also been a sustained effort to engage Māori more in the design, decisionmaking and delivery of education discussed further in Sections 6 and 8.

Section 4: Improving the Resources Available to Māori Learners

The Māori Education Strategy includes several targets focused on resources. These targets include increasing the number of kura kaupapa Māori, ensuring a basic set of Māori language teaching and learning materials across the curriculum, and increasing the number of Māori medium early childhood and school teachers.

There has also been an emphasis on identifying and addressing the resource needs of Māori students with special needs.

Section 5: Lifting the Quality and Supporting Kaupapa Mātauranga Māori

The Māori Education Strategy has set six targets to significantly lift the quality and support the growth of kaupapa mātauranga Māori which link into other sections of this report including Sections 4 and 6. The key areas of focus are on:

• increasing the number of kura kaupapa Māori, contingent on quality
• increasing the quantity and quality of Māori language teaching and learning materials
• improving teaching supply and retention across all forms of Māori language education
• improving te reo Māori proficiency of Māori medium teachers
• showing positive trends in ERO reports for kura kaupapa Māori schools.

Section 6: Valuing the Role that Parents and the Community can play

The Māori Education Strategy aims to raise the expectations of Māori parents, whānau and communities for a better education for their children. Whakaaro Mātauranga - Think Learning is designed to ensure that Māori are fully informed about education using Pouwhakataki and a communications campaign (Te Mana - ki te Taumata).

Initiatives such as the study support centres (Section 4 and Case Study 10), and the Feed the Mind Campaign support the engagement of parents in their children's learning at home and in the school.

Section 7: Lifting Māori Participation and Achievement in Tertiary Education

The Māori Education Strategy has targets specifically concerned with increasing participation and achievement of Māori in tertiary education institutions to match that of non-Māori students. Access to and success in tertiary education is critical for individuals to realise skills, employment prospects and adequate income levels.

The wānanga settlement process has progressed this past year with one wānanga recently negotiating a settlement package with the Crown. Extra funding was also made available to tertiary institutions to meet the particular needs of their Māori students.

The work of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (TEAC), the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), as well as the work being undertaken on adult literacy, adult and community education and industry training, will have implications for Māori students.

Section 8: Involvement and Authority of Māori in Education

One of the core elements of the Government's approach to Māori education is to develop Māori authority and partnership as a way of ensuring Māori can be more actively involved in, and responsible for education. The partnerships developed between iwi and Māori organisations and the Ministry as well as the Hui Taumata Mātauranga process, are all initiatives relevant to supporting Māori authority and involvement in education.

The Ministry has also set targets to achieve:

• greater whānau, hapū and iwi involvement and authority in school governance
• greater Māori involvement and authority in tertiary education
• more, and better partnerships between iwi and education providers.

Section 9: Raising the Ministry's responsiveness to Māori Education

The Ministry has a critical leadership role in facilitating educational success across the whole education sector. The Ministry provides funding, policy direction and the overall framework in which education providers operate. It is therefore critical that the Ministry continues to develop the staff capability in terms of requisite skills and knowledge, and the optimal environment to respond to Māori educational needs.