Source: QPEC
QPEC totally condemns the decision to sabotage At the Marae. In its explanation, the Ministry actually acknowledges “these words reflect everyday language used in classrooms and communities.”
Then in the same sentence, in an embarrassing display of pedagogical rigidity, the Ministry claims “the higher number [six words] presented decoding challenges within the phonics sequence used in the series.”
The evidence worldwide suggests the opposite.
From the 1960s onwards, projects like the Bilingual Education Project at the Ontario Institute of Education in Toronto have established quite categorically that young children have a natural ability to absorb several languages at the same time, without damage to other functioning like learning to read.
Indeed, acquiring more than one language leads to greater verbal ability in general.
In Aotearoa NZ, te reo Māori has the added advantage of a close fit between print and sound — closer than there is between English language print and sound.
So one irony of the Ministry decision is that censoring Māori words will actually limit both the development of reading abilities and the advantages of bilingualism.
And another is the ludicrous decision to delete Māori words from a book that focuses on the Marae, the central location of Māori culture.
We should bear in mind that the decision may have less to do with the Ministry and much to do with the prejudices of the Coalition Government.
As Waatea reports, Bruce Jepsen, president of Te Akatea, the Māori Principals’ Association, says the decision not to reprint “At the Marae” was racist and white supremacist. We agree.
