More Pupils Now Learning Maori

Te Ao Hou, 1973, Page 34

More Pupils Now Learning Maori Teacher: Tena koutou tamariki ma (greetings to you all). Class: Tena koe (greetings to you). This is how a class in Maori language starts at Mangere Intermediate School and it demonstrates a new feature of learning in Auckland schools in recent years—the considerable increase in the teaching of the Maori language to both Maori and European pupils in our intermediate and secondary schools. Up to last year there was no Maori taught in intermediate schools and only in a few State secondary

schools, notably Hillary College. However, in private Maori secondary schools, such as Queen Victoria School and St Stephen's School. Maori was taught extensively. But today the language is taught to thousands of children in a number of intermediate and State secondary schools. A limiting factor is the supply of qualified teachers. Form 11 pupils in nine intermediate schools in the Auckland Education Board's area learn Maori language and customs. At Mangere Intermediate, however, lessons are extended to Form 1 pupils. In primary schools, up to Standard Four, Maori language is taught incidentally as part of the social studies programme. There are now more than 4,500 secondary school pupils learning Maori compared with 1962 six years ago. A feature is that in the same time the numbers of Europeans taking the subject have risen from 76 to 1381. This is due to the fact that Maori is now a School Certificate subject. There are 21 State secondary schools in the Auckland area offering the language. Many more schools also teach Maoritanga, which includes language, culture and arts and crafts in evening classes. This is a complete change from the position of many years ago when at the insistence of some Maori elders who believed the future of their children lay in being fluent in English, Maori pupils heard speaking their language at school were punished. Both Auckland Primary Teachers' College and North Shore Teachers' College plan to introduce courses in Maori studies, including language, next year. At Auckland Secondary Teachers' College, those graduate students who intend to teach the Maori language have courses to help them. All students have a study course designed to give them a background to Maoritanga while there is an elective course available in Maori education and sociological studies. Impetus to the teaching of Maori language in schools has been given by the National Advisory Committee on Maori Education, an organisation set up by the Government to advise the Minister of Education on matters relating to Maori education. Two years ago it recommended that priority be given to the teaching of Maori language and the pronunciation of common Maori words and phrases, including place names. This should be part of the primary school syllabus up to Standard Four for all pupils, it said. Another recommendation was that in Forms I and II, Maori language be introduced as an option in a linkage scheme similar to that operating for French. (This means the language would be taught at those intermediate schools who feed secondary schools also offering the language). The teaching of Maori in secondary schools as an optional subject where there was sufficient community demand was also recommended. The committee made this recommendation because it was concerned that so many Maori children lacked confidence in themselves. It declared: “It is clearly important that ways must be Teacher Mr W. Houia points out words to one of his pupils at Mangere Intermediate School National Publicity Studios

found of helping them to build and maintain a pride in themselves. It is essential to provide a basis of understanding and acceptance and for their contemporaries to be made aware of the cultural values that form an essential part of a Maori child's life. The committee believes that one way of achieving this is to include Maori language in the school curriculum and to teach Maori studies to all pupils.” A start in intermediate schools was made in 1971 at Baird's and Kaikohe Intermediate which were chosen because pupils would be able to study the subject further at Hillary College and Northland College respectively to which most pupils from these schools proceed in Form III. The colleges offer Maori for School Certificate to those pupils who wish to sit the subject. About 70 per cent of the teaching time in Maori language at intermediate schools is oral. This covers simple greetings, commands and conversation. The course also contains study of the arts and crafts of the Maori, weaving, action and hand games, stick games, history and customs, procedures at a marae and tangi and myths and legends appropriate to the local district. Some pupils have also been out in the field visiting maraes. Intermediate pupils follow a scheme of work which has been drawn up by study groups of teachers of Maori. The Department of Education has produced several excellent books, including a comprehensive handbook. Within the Auckland board area there are about 10 teachers who spend two periods weekly teaching Maori. At Mangere Intermediate, the two teachers spend about half of their time on the subject. All teachers are fluent speakers of Maori and a number hold university qualifications. Courses are held for teachers who also regularly receive newsletters to help them. An inspector of primary schools, Mr B. F. E. Kelly, says that it is proposed that next year the number of teachers will be increased by placing willing second and third year teachers competent in Maori in selected areas. Soon specialists will be appointed to the staffs of teachers' colleges to implement courses in Maori studies so that all future teachers have a basic knowledge of Maori customs and culture. Hillary College, which services a multiracial community at Otara, south of Auckland, is a leader in the teaching of Maori language in secondary schools. Since 1967, the year after it opened, the school has offered the subject to all pupils in the third form, with the aim of School Certificate in the fifth form. About half the pupils—265 this year—have accepted the offer. They include Maoris, Samoans, Niueans and Europeans. The principal, Mr J. G. Johnson, says that initially the college decided to teach Maori language to make the Maori pupils feel the college was not just another Pakeha institution but catered for their needs as well. “But since then our view has changed—Maori should be a subject in its own right,” he says. Maori has the advantage over all other Maori arts and crafts help in understanding the language—another class at Mangere Intermediate National Publicity Studies

languages, apart from English, in that it is a living language in the home community. Pupils spend as much time on the subject as any other comparable subject. They spend four periods weekly in the third form, five in the fourth form and six in the fifth form. Mr Johnson says the teaching of the language has made Maori pupils realise that their culture is valued as much as that of the European, has improved their ability in other subjects, has made a major contribution to the growth of school spirit and has resulted in a greater involvement by parents in college affairs. “There is no doubt that there is a real deep-seated desire by the Maori people that the language be taught in schools,” says Mr Johnson. A senior inspector of secondary schools, Mr M. V. Hutchinson, says the Department of Education is encouraging the teaching of Maori language in all secondary schools where the principal favours it and where there is a demand and the teaching to support it. “The availability of teachers is a limiting factor. There is an increasing number of graduates from university with qualifications in Maori language but they are not all taking up teaching. It would help if more of these persons entered teaching.” says Mr Hutchinson. Mr Hutchinson sees an increasing number of pupils offering Maori as a School Certificate subject in the next year or two. He says a committee has been working on a new type of School Certificate examination which will give emphasis to the listening and speaking skills. This development along audio-lingual lines parallels that taking place in French and German. Some schools are now teaching Maori as a language or a background study and some are teaching it as both. Mr Hutchinson believes the growth in the teaching of the Maori language, as far as Maoris are concerned, springs from recognition of the value of the study of one's own language as a means of increasing self-respect and an awareness of racial identity. There is also a realisation of the contribution that Maori language and culture can make to our multi-racial society. For Europeans, the study of another language makes them aware of another mode of thought.