This article was first published by RNZ.
Māori educators are deeply concerned by a government proposal to reinvest funding for resource teachers into other - as yet unknown - frontline support.
The government is proposing to reinvest the funding made available for Resource Teachers of Literacy (RTL) and Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) into other “more efficient” frontline support.
Nationally, there are a maximum of 121 literacy and 53 Māori full-time resource teacher positions. Of these, 110 roles are currently filled for RTLs and 48 roles are filled for RTMs.
If the changes go ahead as proposed, funding for resource teachers will cease from the start of the first term in 2026. The government hasn’t outlined how this funding would be reinvested - those decisions will be made as part of Budget 2025.
The Ministry of Education has asked all schools for feedback on the proposal on or before 21 March 2025, which will be considered before decisions on reinvesting the funding are made.
The co-chair of Te Rūnanga Nui o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori and Principal of Wellington school Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna, Rāwiri Wright said the overall lack of consideration for Māori education in the proposal is disappointing.
The inequity of funding and resourcing for Kura Kaupapa Māori and for Mātauranga Māori education was ‘the guts’ of the claim Kura Kaupapa Māori took to the Waitangi Tribunal, he said.
“We have been short changed, not only by this government, but by previous governments in terms of adequate funding and resourcing in order to protect, promote and develop this option,” Wright said.
“As the minister has said herself that is where the huge successes are being seen for tamariki Māori in education, all of the disparities and the underachievement statistics that are being talked about are not from kaupapa Māori education settings such as Kura Kaupapa Māori and Kura a iwi, but they are from mainstream settings."
The resource teacher positions were set up to try and improve the lot of tamariki Māori in mainstream setting, so it’s particularly disappointing that this support mechanism is being taken away, Wright said.
“There certainly did need to be a review of how they might be better used and if that’s what can come from this consultation round great, but we are cautious and will see what happens in the next few weeks.”
Wright said Kura Kaupapa use resource teachers in quite a different way to how they are used in kaupapa Pākehā schools.
“[At Ngā Mokopuna] I use them provide professional development for my new and emerging teachers, my kaiāwhina and my recently graduated teachers, because our person, our RTM is an experienced primary trained teacher, matatau ki te reo (knowledgeable with the language) and she has lots of skills to offer. That’s what helps our kaiako (teachers) therefore that’s what helps our tamariki (children).”
Wright said he has had feedback from RTMs who go into English medium schools and feel as though they are a token gesture for funding, and don’t feel their potential has been realised.
The president of education union NZEI Te Riu Roa and a former resource teacher herself Ripeka Lessels said resource teachers work with the most vulnerable tamariki - with children who have difficulty with reading and literacy.
“They’re specialist teachers, they’re teachers who are trained to work with our most vulnerable children and more often than not in our most vulnerable communities and rather than cutting the service as the RTMs a few years ago requested that [the Minister] should increase the service.”
Lessels said resource teachers of Māori in particular have been asking for more funding.
She said there’s been at least seven reviews - she was involved in four of them in her time as a resource teacher.
“Of all those reviews and the recommendations that came out of those reviews not one of them was actioned at all by the ministry, so the resource teachers themselves have been asking to have a look at this service, but moreover to be properly resourced to do the job they were called to do.”
Lessels questioned whether the children who benefit from the service - many of whom are tamariki Māori - will see any improved outcomes if the service is cut.
If anything taking away the service combined with the removal of other programs aimed at supporting teachers will make the inequity gap bigger, she said.
There’s been a lack of transparency about what exactly will be done with the funding, she said.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said where the funding goes is dependent on the 2025 Budget - but she said the current model is not efficient or equitable.
“That’s the whole point of this exercise is to make sure that those resources are equitably distributed and I think I’ve said publicly that many of those RT Māori teachers, who are exceptional teachers, are clustered in areas like Southland where there isn’t as much need as for example in Northland,” she said.
By Pokere Paewai of RNZ.
