'It is a taonga' - Green Party renew calls for compulsory Te Reo Māori in school by 2025

September 10, 2018

The Greens want students Year 1 to 10 to have access to learn the language.

The Green Party are renewing calls to prioritise compulsory Te Reo Māori in schools by 2025. 

Green co-leader Marama Davidson told media the party would re-affirm their stance on universal te reo in schools. 

"We have a responsibility to ensure that our indigenous language not just survives, but thrives in Aotearoa, and introducing all children to it at school is one of the best ways to make that happen," Ms Davidson said. 

Ms Davidson said "quite a bit" would need to be done in terms of resourcing, which included possibly holding a summit at the end of the year, providing scholarships and promotion of teaching te reo. 

"It is a taonga, unique to our idenity, unique to our economy, our society, to our culture and our communities," Ms Davidson said on TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning. 

"We need this to happen now, so that our beautiful first language thrives in Aotearoa. The Green Party is leading the way towards making te reo a core curriculum subject."

Union NZEI welcomed the call, and called for Te Reo Māori lessons to begin in early childhood education. 

NZEI Matua Takawaenga Laures Park said they had been calling for "Te Reo Māori to be a core curriculum subject for a number of years now. There is strong public support for this, and it is time for the Government to act." 

 

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