Pasifika education at risk

Pasifika families and educators are branding the government assimilationalist, saying its policies threaten their children’s learning. Heeni Collins reports

ECE funding cuts are hitting Pasifika bilingual and immersion centres particularly hard, and the situation is expected to worsen. “Its going to really hit home when the next funding round comes, by July,” says Jan Taouma who manages a Pasifika centre in Auckland, and is a council member of Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa, the New Zealand Childcare Association.
Community-based childcare centres in low socio-economic areas, without a church or wider organisation to support them, are particularly vulnerable. One community-based South Auckland a’oga amata (Pacific Island language nest) visited by EA was already $89,000 in debt and planning to borrow money from a bank to pay its overdue GST.
It is proud that it has built up to 100% qualified staff since opening 10 years ago, but with the government withdrawing funding for any more than 80% of qualified staff, the centre has experienced a huge drop in income. It also had higher-than-required staff-to-child ratios.
Its parent fees have been increased by $10 per week (to $110 per week for under twos, $100 per week for over twos), the maximum increase it believes its community can afford. But many of its parents are already failing to pay, and even with that increase, a serious shortfall remains.
A great dream
The centre has already laid off a qualified teacher, a cook and reduced the hours of another qualified teacher. “That’s how badly [we’re affected]. I’m thinking that another of the qualified teachers and the manager (me) will be next to go.” A trained primary teacher, she thinks she may have to find another job and continue to manage the centre on a voluntary basis. “It’s terrible. We’ve asked for more resources, but they say sorry we don’t have enough.”
Without assistance the centre may be forced to close, which would be a tragedy for the Otara community. “It was a great dream to set it up. It’s really about maintaining the language, culture and Christian beliefs. They come from families with all that. Through that children are learning in all the learning areas. It’s a very good initiative for the community.”
The centre is a source of pride and morale in a low socio-economic area, but Ms Taouma believes that many Pasifika centres will find the policy changes difficult and confusing, and will have trouble adjusting. Many will be forced to lay off staff, raise fees, and some may close.
There have also been cuts to funding for professional development and training. “Pacific people had started going to conferences, networking with other groups and doing professional development. For those things to go is a great shame,” says Ms Taouma.

Strong demand
Demand for Pacific language ECE centres from families is strong. Most of the 50 or so centres in Auckland have waiting lists of 30 children or more, and some stay on the list until they turn five. “I encourage them to go to the mainstream centres as well, but they want to come here because of the language,” says the manager of the centre above.
Another Samoan language pre-school, St Peter Chanel Aoga Amata, also in Otara, was facing a shortfall of $88,000 next year due to the fact that three of its staff are due to graduate at the end of the year – lifting its level of qualified staff from 80% to 100%.
However, because it is part of a wider Catholic network, centre manager Sayonara Faamausili is hoping that a partnership with another Catholic Samoan preschool will provide a solution. The other centre has fewer qualified teachers, allowing for a spread of the qualified staff across the two centres and greater efficiencies.
A better fit
Research shows that alongside educational outcomes, cultural appropriateness and cultural connectedness are very important for Pacific families in deciding whether or not to take their children to a centre. Those who have not participated before will do so if there is a connection through church, family or community.
There has been a strong take-up amongst Pasifika of the free 20-hour per week policy for three and four year olds. But the funding cuts are a serious setback in a sector which has made good progress towards higher participation over the last ten years, largely due to the number of new Pacific-run centres being set up.
While they still have the lowest early childhood education participation rates of all ethnic groups in the country, the percentage of Pasifika children participating in ECE increased from 76.1% to 85.4 percent from 2000 to 2006. The participation rate for the total population increased from 91% to 95.5% over that time. Pasifika peoples make up 7.2% of New Zealand’s population (302,000), and this proportion is expected to grow to 10% by 2026.
Focus on English
The government claims it is committed to increasing participation amongst these groups, but in fact its trial Participation Project in Manukau focused mainly on encouraging the growth of low-cost options such as play groups and Playcentre groups, which it encouraged to focus more on English literacy and numeracy.
Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association general manager Karen Shields comments: “While mainstream centres do a wonderful job, so do immersion services as long as they provide a quality outcome. The government should be focusing on quality, not type of service.”
In 2008, around 11.4 percent of Pacific children taking part in ECE were in immersion or bilingual centres. In that year, there were 115 Pacific ECE, mostly run and managed by Pacific communities and educating children in at least one Pacific Island language. Forty five percent provide immersion in Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island Maori or Niuean languages, and 57% provide bilingual education (English/Pacific).Over half of these are in Auckland.
A strong sense of cultural identity in their early years enables Māori and Pacific Island children to stand tall in a wider setting, and research shows they do better educationally in all fields if their first six years of learning are in an appropriate cultural context – preferably in their own language.



Coalition challenges attacks
A wide coalition of Pacific Island families and concerned organisations is taking action to protest the government’s decision to halt production of advanced educational resources in Pacific Island languages (the Tupu and Tolauga series produced by Learning Media).
There have been eight complaints to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) by families and groups on the issue. A campaign is being led by the Bilingual Leo Pacific Coalition and supporters include the NZEI, PPTA, the NZ Childcare Association, the NZ Pacific Principals Association, the EPMU, and the Porirua City Council. Over 4,000 people have signed their petition.
The HRC has accepted that the coalition’s complaint meets its criteria relating to rights to cultural expression and freedom from discrimination. It has organised mediation between complainants and the Ministry of Education but this has been delayed by the Christchurch earthquake.
Key goals gone
A disturbing indication of the ministry’s attitude to Pacific language education is the fact that last year, under direction from Education Minister Anne Tolley, it removed key goals from the Pacific Education Plan (2008-2012) which explicitly supported the education of Pacific children in their own languages.
The government would not get away with this if Pacific Island languages had official status in this country, say leading complainants John McCaffrey of Auckland University’s Faculty of Languages and his wife Judy McFall, a post-graduate researcher. Judy and John fear for the future of their grandchildren of Samoan, Tongan and Cook Island descent.
A group of 10 bilingual primary schools in Auckland is also protesting loudly to government about the decision to “pause” funding the production of the Tupu Pacific language reading resource materials. “The books are absolutely imperative for us to access, to enable children to progress their first language, “ says Shirley Maihi, Principal of Finlayson Park School in Manurewa, and chair of the Auckland Samoan Bilingual Education cluster.
Loss of identity and morale
These materials, similar to the School Journal but in the languages of Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Niue and Cook Island Māori, have been produced for over ten years and have been developed to a very high standard, says Mrs Maihi.
Mrs Maihi has been involved with Pasifika bilingual education in South Auckland since 1996, and has seen the value of bilingual education with her own eyes. “At this particular school, our children coming through the Samoan bilingual pathway are succeeding at a higher level in years 6 to 8 than the Pasifika children coming through the English-medium pathway.”
She fears that without support from the government, the children will lose their language, which will mean an eventual loss of the languages in the Pacific communities in New Zealand, with consequent loss of identity and morale.
In addition to the 10 bilingual schools concerned, there are at least another 10 schools in Auckland and others elsewhere using the Tupu series as important enrichment materials. New Pacific language resources are so important to these schools that they are now trying to source them overseas, including from Australia, using money from their operational budgets.
While a World Bank study found that supporting bilingual education is economically prudent because it raises the educational success and therefore the income of indigenous or minority groups in later life, the government appears to be making its decisions based on an immediate need to cut spending, and a determination to pursue its narrow focus on English literacy and numeracy in the primary and early childhood sectors.


Key points
ECE fundings cuts hit Pasifika centres harder as families are on lower incomes.
Students achieve at higher levels when learning in the language of their culture.
Government has cut funding for Pasifika language resources, and removed key goals from the Pacific Education Plan (2008-2012).