New Zealand's oldest not-for-profit Pacific community-based education provider has received $NZ3.9 million over four years to provide free community Pacific language courses online.
Photo: Supplied / Pasifika Education Centre
Pasifika Education Centre, (PEC), based in Auckland was established more than 40 years ago, as an organisation to support Pacific people new to Aotearoa to learn English and receive settlement support.
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, said the PEC was the ideal organisation to deliver community Pacific language courses that provided practical hands-on training to all New Zealanders, including training that was useful and had practical applications in diverse cultural settings, irrespective if people spoke fluently or not.
Chief Executive, Tuiloma Gayle Lafaiali'i, shared that students had said that access to Pacific language classes was a barrier to their learning.
"There's a phenomenon in Auckland where people won't travel across town and so if we had a course on a Monday, some will say they can't come Monday, but we don't have capacity to do it on another day and it's too far to travel," she said.
"When the Ministry of Pacific Peoples gave us a wonderful investment, it changed the landscape for us, so now we are able to offer classes outside of Auckland via online courses."
Tuiloma said the Ministry was keen on getting language courses regionally and with limited teaching resources, going digital was the best way to reach those goals.
"We launched the courses three weeks ago and we've seen a drastic uptake since we put the classes online and it just proves to us that people are in a different space."
Chief Executive of Pasifika Education Centre, Tuiloma Gayle Lafaiali'i Photo: Supplied / Pasifika Education Centre
Tuiloma said the pandemic had made the transition from physical space learning to e-learning a smooth process.
"Covid-19 has had an impact in how people look at doing things online such as education. A lot of people saw that actually it's okay to do things at our own home," she said.
Tuiloma said that data showed children who were raised as bilingual speakers were more likely to have an academic advantage when they got to school.
"It was different when I was raised. My mother was actively encouraged to not to teach us Samoan. They were told that if you want the children to be successful, you only teach them English.
"The data now tells us that's wrong. The more languages your children can speak, the more likely they will become successful and become more mindful of other cultures," she said.
Minister Sio said the funding showed the government was committed to supporting the languages and cultures of Pacific Aotearoa, providing Pacific communities with the cultural foundation from which they could build their future.
"By working with partners like the Pasifika Education Centre, we are providing our Pacific communities with the tools they need to grow their first languages and cultural skills.
"In my travels around the country, more and more young people tell me they value their Pacific languages and cultures and recognise that Pacific bilingualism gives them a competitive edge in their personal life, including in their educational pursuit and in the modern marketplace."