Compulsory Te Reo Māori In Schools

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon is today calling for compulsory te reo Māori classes to be introduced in schools within five years.

A fluent te reo speaker himself says he wrote to the education Minister Chris Hopkins and other political party leaders last year saying such a move would address the effects of colonisation and help New Zealand understand the Treaty of Waitangi is a constitutional document.

"The normalisation of te reo Māori would help address issues around Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the destructive effects of colonisation and structural racism by building empathy, understanding and ultimately ally-ship." Foon said.

Whilst he may be correct in his stated position in regard to the teaching of te reo in schools, there is a much more important issue to address before we start to expend our limited resources in both money and time on the compulsory teaching of te reo.

New Zealand students levels of achievement in S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects is declining as shown in a recent major study into the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS). Some of the results of that study which were published by RNZ in December 2020 are copied below:

New Zealand's 13-year-olds have recorded their worst-ever results in a major international maths and science test.

The Year 9 students' scores in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) fell by the largest margins since the study began in 1994.

More than 580,000 children in 64 countries participated in the test in 2019.

Singapore topped the table in every subject and for every age group with average maths scores of 625 for nine-year-olds and 616 for 13-year-olds, and science results of 595 for nine-year-olds and 608 for 13-year-olds.

New Zealand's scores for nine-year-olds (Year 5 students) also fell in both subjects since the last time the test was conducted in 2014/15.

But Year 9 students' results were particularly bad. Their maths score fell 11 points to 482 and their science score fell 14 points to 499 on a scale where 500 is the midpoint.

The study showed the students performed worst in algebra and chemistry questions, and best at data and probability, and earth science.

The directors of the study, Dr Ina V S Mullis and Dr Mick O Martin, from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College in the United States, said the decline in New Zealand's 13-year-olds' results were "a little startling".

Education Ministry chief scientific advisor Professor Stuart McNaughton from the University of Auckland said the scale of the drop in 13-year-olds' scores had surprised him.

"It's quite significant to be honest," he said.

McNaughton said the TIMSS report showed where New Zealand students were weakest, such as biology and statistics, and that would help with targeted solutions.

"These are really tough challenges and to be honest we should have solved them, but we're now in a better position to do that."

He said the Year 9 scores were the cumulative result of teaching in Years 4-8.

McNaughton said it remained to be seen if the latest results were a trend that would be continued.

"It does tell us that what we have been doing hasn't been working," he said.

New Zealand's Year 9 students' maths results showed the re-emergence of a gap between boys' and girls' performance (in favour of boys) and 18 per cent of the students failed to reach even the low-performance benchmark while only six per cent reached the advanced benchmark.

By comparison, in Australia only 10 per cent of students did not reach the low benchmark, and in Singapore 51 per cent achieved the advanced benchmark.

In science, just eight per cent of Year 9 students reached the advanced benchmark, well behind the best-performing nation, Singapore, where 48 per cent of students were advanced.

The study is run by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

Last year, New Zealand's 15-year-olds recorded their lowest scores ever in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests reading, maths and science. Of the 79 participating countries in PISA, New Zealand was 11th equal for reading, 12th for science, and 27th for maths.

Setting the benchmarks

Maths: Year 4 students, advanced benchmark

(Twenty one per cent of New Zealand students answered this question correctly. The international average was 24 per cent.)

Science: Year 4 students, low benchmark

(78 per cent of New Zealand students answered this question correctly. The international average was 74 per cent.)

Maths: Year 9 students, intermediate benchmark

(69 per cent of New Zealand students answered this question correctly. The international average was 59 per cent.)

Science: Year 9 students, intermediate benchmark

(48 per cent of New Zealand students answered correctly. The international average was 61 per cent.)

New Zealand’s education system has limited resources in both time and money and it is my opinion that it would be a ludicrous decision to make te reo compulsory and use up some of those limited resources on something that is a nice to have rather than concentrate the expenditure on the must haves (STEM) that will ensure the economic future of both the individual students and New Zealand as a whole.

I have no problem with offering te reo as an optional subject but given the results of the TIMSS report I believe that we should be targeting our resources at lifting the standards in the STEM subjects as a compulsory part of the curriculum given that these subjects are critical to both the students and the country’s economic survival. If students wish to opt into learning te reo then this should be an addition to their curriculum rather than take time away from their compulsory subjects.

Whilst as Meng Foon says, it may be great to teach te reo which may help in building empathy, understanding and ultimately ally-ship with Maori, it is my opinion that this is very much of secondary importance if we are going to produce student graduates that cannot add two and two without getting an answer of five.

If we do not fix the declining standards in the STEM subjects we are doomed to producing a generation that will not have the skills and knowledge to develop their own life skills after finishing schooling or the ability to provide a secure economic future for themselves and any family they may have in the future.

© Scoop Media