“It seems the plan is to leave a vacuum,” writes Ripeka Lessels, about a proposal to defund resource teachers of Māori. (Photo: NZEI Te Riu Roa)

The Minister of Education has begun consulting on defunding resource teachers of Māori.

Ripeka Lessels, president of the education union NZEI and a former resource teacher of Māori, says the move doesn’t make sense.

There it was — another gut punch for tamariki Māori.

This time, it was the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, announcing that she is consulting with all schools and kura about whether the ministry should continue funding resource teachers specialising in Māori and literacy — or spend the money elsewhere.

The news will hurt those resource teachers of Māori and literacy the most, of course, but, boy, it hurt me too. And all Māori educators and, actually, all Māori. We’re sick of the funding being pulled from our patch.

This announcement comes so soon after Erica Stanford took $30 million from Te Ahu o te Reo, a highly effective te reo learning programme, to spend it on maths instead. And of course, this government has also deprioritised Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the New Zealand Curriculum and the Education and Training Act.

Maybe I felt the latest move even more personally because I used to be a resource teacher of Māori for five years. I remember the mokopuna Māori looking up at me, those kids who really needed my help. I remember the kaiako too, who needed support and guidance so they could teach our tamariki in a way that aligned with tikanga and te ao Māori. Ways that would really connect with them.

It doesn’t make sense. The minister has been positive about tamariki succeeding in Māori immersion learning. But now the very people who support this to happen effectively are in the firing line.

Resource teachers of Māori are the only teachers whose primary purpose is to uphold the revitalisation and preservation of kaupapa Māori in kura and rūmaki (immersion programmes and bilingual schools.)

The service was established because of the inequities Māori were facing in the education system. Those inequities haven’t gone away.

There’s now a three-week consultation process before decisions are made, but I fear that could do more harm than good. Feedback is sought from all schools, but the majority of schools don’t use resource teachers of Māori. There could easily be majority feedback saying schools don’t use these specialist teachers, and then the decision looks straightforward. It’s not.

Kura kaupapa Māori and Māori medium education settings use the service. They are the ones who should be consulted. Why not ask whānau and tamariki mokopuna, who benefit directly from these teachers, what they think? It would make sense, too, to talk to the resource teachers of Māori themselves, but the consultation sidesteps them. That’s not consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

These teachers are hurt at being excluded from the consultation, and they’re angry because there’s been an ongoing lack of focus on their service.

In 2008, after resource teachers of Māori lobbied the government for better support, the Education Review Office was asked to evaluate the service. Its report concluded that resource teachers of Māori had “the potential to make a significant contribution towards better outcomes for students”. It also came up with a path forward, but governments since have largely ignored the report’s recommendations — and resource teachers of Māori have grown increasingly frustrated.

Then, on February 28, education minister Erica Stanford announced this consultation on defunding the service. The consultation document says defunding the resource teachers of Māori and literacy will enable all schools to have more in-school learning support. It doesn’t say how the current funding, which doesn’t stretch to even one resource teacher for Māori per school, could be spread even further in the future. Even more concerning is that there’s no mention of who picks up specialist support for Māori learners. It seems the plan is to leave a vacuum.

We need tamariki Māori to succeed — and to do that, we need more investment in their education, not less.

Ripeka Lessels is of Tūhoe and Ngāti Awa descent. She has been a teacher for over 40 years, a principal for the past 14 years and has taught in primary and secondary schools, both English and Māori medium. She is president of NZEI Te Riu Roa and was formerly the deputy chair of the Teaching Council. She has five children, 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her oldest grandchild is 32 and her youngest is two.

E-Tangata, 2025