File photo. Education Minister Erica Stanford $30m million was needed for maths workbooks, guidance, and lesson plans for the 2025 school year. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
New resources and support for teachers to lift maths achievement will be paid for by cutting back a programme that helps them learn te reo Māori.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said $30 million was needed for maths workbooks, guidance, and lesson plans for the 2025 school year, which had to be sourced from somewhere.
Stanford said just 22 percent of Year 8 students were at the expected standard for maths.
However, that figure came from testing pupils against the new maths curriculum and not the curriculum they were currently using. The achievement rate for Year 8 students under the current curriculum was 42 percent
"Just 45 percent of high school students are passing foundational maths. I am not prepared to look parents in the eye and allow the 60,000 kids starting school next year to be on a similar trajectory," she said.
"Maths achievement needs to be prioritised."
Students currently enrolled in the programme would be able to complete their course until the end of the year when it would close.
Since 2019, $100m has been set aside for teachers to learn te reo Māori, but Stanford said there was no evidence it directly impacted students and their achievement.
The te reo Māori initiative was not accredited and was more than double the cost of similar courses available, she said.
"An evaluation of the programme found no evidence it directly impacted progress and achievements for students. The review also couldn't qualify what impact the programme had on te reo Māori use in the classroom."
"This government is committed to the revitalisation of te reo Māori and recognises the importance of the language in our schools," Stanford said.
"We will work with the Wānanga, tertiary providers and private training establishments to continue to make similar courses available free of charge. Funding for te reo Māori courses in Māori medium schools and kura will also remain."
New Zealand Education Institution president Mark Potter told Checkpoint the programme showed teachers how to understand and access a comprehensive world perspective.
"It gave a different world view through the Māori lens as well as increasing their confidence, their skill levels and by doing so, the same thing for the children they are teaching, it has been enriching for everybody," he said.
Govt axes $30 million Maori language programme for teachers
With the programme being axed, he said 2000 teachers would not get the programme's funding.
"What their funding did do was resourced them with the time that they needed to learn the skills and the knowledge. If they don't have the time and funding, they have to do their weekends and at nights and they just already are time poor," he said.
"This one has come out of the field for us. We're very surprised."
He said Aotearoa New Zealand was a bilingual country because of the Crown's commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
"The teachers learning te reo means they're making the correct commitments to the teaching standards," he said.
"It also means the profession helps the Crown meet its responsibilities, under Te Tiriti if we're all enriched by our knowledge of te reo Māori, the different world perspective and tikanga as well, then the mana of our country is upheld."
He said the union would not say no to more resources for maths, but it did not see the value in the government taking away money from te reo Māori education.
From 21 October primary schools will be able to choose the maths resources and supports that best suit them, from a range of approved suppliers.
Stanford said the resources will be sent to schools to begin using from the start of term 1 next year.
The resources will also be available in te reo Māori "so there is equitable access across our education system," she said.
The funding that has been diverted to maths resources has come from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori.