A shake-up of New Zealand’s curriculum has resulted in Māori words being scrapped from a selection of books used to teach five-year-olds and a decision not to reprint a well-loved book for young readers because it contained too many Māori words.
The changes have sparked widespread criticism from academics, teachers and authors, who have called it “an assault” on Māori identity and the latest in the coalition government’s efforts to prioritise English over the Indigenous language – criticisms the education minister has strongly rejected.
What has changed in the curriculum?
In 2024, education minister Erica Stanford announced she was implementing a “structured literacy approach” to reading, which teaches children to read by using sounds and phonics to understand words.
Part of that change has resulted in a decision to cut Māori words – except for characters’ names – from any new books in the education ministry’s Ready to Read Phonics Plus series – a series of 78 books provided to primary schools.
The move affects 12 new books, and has resulted in the decision not to reprint the small take-home-version of At the Marae, a well-known early reader book that teaches children about visiting traditional Māori meeting grounds.
The book will instead be printed in full-size format for teachers to read aloud in class because it contains six Māori words – some of which could be hard for children to decode, the education ministry told the Guardian.
The ministry also said while its new books in its early reader series will not contain Māori words, except for names, some existing titles will retain Māori words.
What is the rationale for scrapping Māori words?
The decision to remove the Māori words was driven by concern that incorporating Māori words into English texts could be confusing for children learning to read English, according to an education ministry report to Stanford in October.
“Introducing different orthographies simultaneously could lead to confusion for learners, making it more difficult for them to master English phonetics within these crucial early years of school,” the report noted in its advice.
However, it went on to say the evidence of this was “mixed” and “uncertain”.
In hand-written notes on the report, the minister said the government had made “a real commitment” to invest in Māori language books and that “language revitalisation is so important”.
She said Māori language schools and teachers had told her they did not want English language in the Māori language “decodable” books – texts designed for children to practise decoding sounds and letters – and it would be “consistent to keep to one language only” in the very early decodable books.
The ministry said “all words, including English words, in these early readers are very tightly controlled to make sure they are decodable for students”.
Why have the changes sparked criticism?
Principals, academics and authors have criticised the decision, saying it undermines the place of the Indigenous language and children’s ability to learn both English and Māori.
“It’s not only harmful from a cultural identity perspective, but it also gives very little faith in our children that they can grasp these very few, simple words,” said Dr Awanui Te Huia, associate professor at Victoria University of Wellington’s Māori studies department, Te Kawa a Māui.
Te Huia said Māori children face barriers attending Māori-immersion preschools and schools due to lengthy waitlists, so most end up going into mainstream education.
“The very limited opportunities that they have to see the language, to see themselves thrive, is being further reduced by advice that I don’t see as being evidence based,” she said.
The minister’s argument that Māori experts did not want English in their text and therefore, Māori should be limited in English texts, was drawing a false equivalence between the status of the two languages, Te Huia said.
“We need to create some boundaries around how much English – the dominant language – is put into that very limited space where you’re exposed to [Māori] language.”
In a statement, the Māori principals association, Te Akatea, said it was outraged and disappointed at the decision to not reprint the small versions of At the Marae.
“This decision is a direct attack on our language, a dismissal of our culture, and an assault on our identity as Māori,’ it said, adding that books like At the Marae expose the 97% of Māori children in English-medium schools, and many non-Māori to the language.
“These are acts of racism, cultural suppression and are deliberate attempts to recolonise our education system.”
Stanford declined the Guardian’s request for comment but in interviews with other media has rejected any claims her policy is an attack on the language.
The education ministry told the Guardian it “firmly rejects claims made by some commentators that this decision is about race” and the decision was “grounded in evidence”. The ministry said it had also, for the first time, offered all schools a complete set of Māori decodable books.
Since taking office, the coalition government has minimised Māori language use in the public service and ushered in sweeping rollbacks to policies designed to improve Māori health and wellbeing.
The rationale behind many of the government’s proposals is to end “race-based” policies and the coalition has said it is committed to improving outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders.
But Te Huia says New Zealand’s position as a “global leader” in language revitalisation was at stake, and “government push back” on the language had resulted in its stagnation.
Principals’ Federation president Leanne Otene told RNZ it felt like New Zealand “was deliberately going backwards”.
“It’s not just one book, it’s part of a concerning pattern of removing te reo Māori [Māori language] from government services across the board,” she said.
“Our children are growing up watching their government treat te reo Māori as less important.”
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