The entrance to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna. Photo: RNZ / Pokere Paewai
Wednesday is the last day for kura kaupapa Māori to lay out their grievances before the Waitangi Tribunal.
The second week of hearings into alleged inequities in the education system has been taking place in Wellington. On Monday, the tribunal was welcomed onto Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna in the suburb of Seatoun.
Much of the hearing is being heard in te reo Māori and this will be the tribunal's first report written mostly in te reo.
The claim is about who has the authority over how te reo is taught and learned.
Te Rūnanga Nui o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa, which oversees kura kaupapa Māori, is seeking the Waitangi Tribunal's intervention to ensure the kura can continue to express their tino rangatiratanga.
Te Rūnanga Nui co-chair Cathy Dewes told the tribunal kura kaupapa will continue to be suppressed if they are forced to rely on the Crown's plan to revitalise the language.
"Kia whirinaki ai mātou ki ā rātou rautaki whakarauora reo mā ngā tamariki Māori me ā rātou whāinga mō tō mātou kaupapa, katahi mātou ka ngaro, ka rite ki te 'mako e kai ana i te kahawai'."
In 2019, a report from the Tomorrow's Schools Taskforce recommended an autonomous governance body be formed to support kura kaupapa Māori.
The government did not adopt that recommendation.
Te Rūnanga Nui chief executive Hōhepa Campbell said they told the government about their concerns over the lack of a parallel pathway for kaupapa Māori schools.
He said that - combined with the lack of any active protections for kura - was what led the rūnanga to file their claim.
"The changes today by the ministry will impact severely on our kaupapa for the next 30 years, unless autonomy is devolved to our whānau kura kaupapa Māori and the kaitiaki of the kaupapa, Te Rūnanga Nui."
The entrance to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna. Photo: RNZ / Pokere Paewai
Te Rūnanga nui's kaihono Mahinarangi Maika said the government's reforms would result in assimilation.
"The Tomorrow's Schools review was a lost opportunity for the Crown to honour its treaty obligations in partnership with kura kaupapa Māori and Te Rūnanga Nui," she said.
As of March 2022 there were 6773 students spread out over 62 official kura kaupapa across the motu. That's only a small fraction of all Māori children who are in education.
Economist Dr Richard Meade said the government should look beyond simply population growth and demographic changes when it considers funding for kura kaupapa Māori.
He told the tribunal that parents valued kura kaupapa in spite of negatives like high travel costs.
"It turns out that parents seem to think that kura are different to other Māori medium schools, they value kura more highly on average than they do other Māori medium schools, in each case relative to English medium. And this is over and above all these other differences I've controlled for: roll size, decile, isolation, etcetera."
The Crown will present its case to the tribunal at the next set of hearings in two weeks' time.