Ki nga tau e heke mai

Tu Tangata, Issue 14, 1 October 1983, Page 19

Ki nga tau e heke mai

Huntly’s Rakaumanga School expects to be given official bi-lingual status by the end of this year. That will mean all its staff will have to be fluently bi-lingual, and will be expected to conduct their classes in Maori as well as English. At the moment Chris Lowman and Barna Heremia, are the only fluent Maori speakers on the staff, although other teachers can use Maori to some extent.

But the school is already advertising for a fluently bi-lingual junior school teacher for next year, in anticipation of official bi-lingual status and the first five-year-olds from nearby Waahi Marae’s kohanga reo.

When that happens, the bi-lingual programme will get under way in earnest. Chris said it was likely that from next year, the junior school pupils will be taught mostly in Maori for a couple of years to give the language a firm base in their thinking.

From then until they go to high school, English-language teaching will be gradually introduced to them as well, so that eventually they are comfortable and competent in both languages. Chris said few, if any of the present pupils will use Maori spontaneously in their conversation, although a few of the older ones “can be persuaded”. But he has occasionally heard the odd Maori phrase in the playground, so the effort may be rubbing off.

Certainly, the children hear plenty of Maori language. Chris and Barna almost always give them instructions in Maori and the response usually indicates that the children know what’s being said. Chris admits its probably too late to make Maori equal to English in the present pupils’ minds. But at least they will grow up with a working knowledge of Maori which they can use if they want to. Many of them have parents and grandparents at home who speak Maori and Chris said many of them were using it more as a result of the school’s programme. Principal Francis Charleton says the bi-lingual programme has 100 per cent

support from the children’s parents pakeha included. One pakeha woman at least is known to speak to her children in Maori at home. She is a teachers aid at the school, has picked the language up in the course of her work, and supports the programme in this way. In fact, the request for official bilingual status could not have happened without parents’ support. All of the handful of bi-lingual schools in the country, except Ruatoki, exist thanks to requests from the parents. Ruatoki was established as an experiment by the Education Department. By all accounts, the bi-lingual programme has benefits besides passing on the Maori language. It also involves cultural activities visitors to the school are welcomed with a traditional powhiri ceremony, with speeches of welcome in Maori and most of the pupils singing Maori songs. Teachers say the programme has

engendered a sense of community on the pupils because their Maoriness receives attention and status, they develop a sense of self-worth which shows in their behaviour. Teachers say they can only recall one playground fight all this year

which may surprise people who think of Huntly West as a “tough” area, And Francis says the local community feels it is important that school become officially bi-lingual. It is, after all, the home territory of Te Ariki Nui, Dame Te Atairangikaahu.