Education leaders and linguists are angered at the Ministry of Education’s decision to stop printing a primary school reader due to the ‘high’ number of te reo Māori words it contains.

The reader, at the Marae, includes seven te reo Māori words: marae, karanga, kai, karakia, wharenui, koro, and hongi, as well as the name of one of the book’s characters, Tāne.

The move, communicated to schools by the Curriculum Centre – Te Poutāhū – in July, has been met with accusations of political and ideological interference, as well as claims that the rationale is both linguistically flawed and culturally harmful.

In a statement, the Ministry confirmed that At the Marae “has been re-sized so that it can be used for ‘Reading with’ students.”

“The small student reader version will not be reprinted. The Ministry has made this decision due to the high number of words that appear in the text in te reo Māori. Te reo Māori vowel sounds are different than English, making this book less appropriate for students to practice decoding words containing grapheme-phoneme correspondences that have already been taught.

“In addition to different vowel sounds, many of the Māori kupu are multisyllabic. Multisyllabic words are introduced later in the scope and sequence,” it said.

The Ministry says it’s updated teaching notes support the use of the new big book format and that physical copies have been sent to primary schools and kura using The New Zealand Curriculum.

“It just feels like a slippery slope” - NZEI President Ripeka Lissels

Despite the Ministry’s rationale, NZEI President Ripeka Lissels says she was still “extremely angered” by the decision and believes it’s part of a broader political agenda.

“It feels like what this government is doing really is that they are lessening them emphasis on te reo Māori in schools. They took away 30 million dollars with Te Ahu o te Reo. They’re cutting front line staff, particularly for literacy Māori to do what? to make things better for tamariki Māori. It just feels like this government hasn’t yet finished with us”

With more than 30 years’ experience as a new entrant teacher, Lissels says the Ministry’s rationale does not stack up and risks setting a dangerous precedent.

“If your focus is an approach like structured literacy, which is an imported approach that isn’t necessarily contextualised to Aotearoa, then where does it stop? Will they remove all other texts that they believe have too many Māori words?”

She’s also deeply concerned that downgrading the reader to a big book only for teacher-led sessions excludes whānau and limits how tamariki engage with reo Māori.

“This defies all logic” — Linguist Vincent Olsen-Reeder

Academic and linguist, Dr Vincent Olsen-Reeder, whose doctoral research investigated the effectiveness of bilingualism as a theoretical approach to revitalisation, says the justification used by the Ministry lacks linguistic credibility.

“All of the pronunciations that occur in te reo Māori are present in English. So if you learn A E I O U and there is no way you won’t learn how to pronounce Māori vowels because they’re encapsulated within that.”

“I did check all of the words in At The Marae and they are all in the Oxford dictionary New Zealand English, which means every single one of those words also has been brought into the English lexicon which means they are part of a fully functional capacity of English.”

He’s especially troubled by the broader implications.

“So many of our Māori children are in those schools where a book like this might be their only exposure to te ao Māori… It just seems to defy all logic.”

He believes it amounts to a form of exclusion and also removes an opportunity for some students.

“We’re taking the language out of the eyes of the child and allowing the Ministry of Education to essentially conceal the language. I just don’t think that’s correct.”

Olsen-Reeder says the Ministry is misusing academic language to justify its position.

“I’ve noticed in the last couple of years that the Ministry of Education has taken it upon itself to employ lots of academic jargon that I don’t think they fully understand, and bring it into their world and give it new meaning without explaining that context to New Zealanders.”

“The Ministry has taken it upon itself to employ lots of academic jargon that I don’t think they fully understand; that effort to misinform is quite scary.”

He says ultimately it is the children who will miss out if these types of rationale and decisions are made in the curriculum, and these sorts of moves fly in the face of the revitalisation and reclamation of te reo Māori in Aotearoa.

“This is ideology, not linguistics” - Associate Professor Corinne Seals

Associate Professor Corinne Seals of Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, says the Ministry’s argument about confusion caused by vowel sounds is factually incorrect.

“The idea that Māori words within English could cause confusion is the exact opposite of the truth. That vowel sound argument is just absolutely not true.”

She says the book illustrates a known form of “translanguaging,” where children move between languages with ease and gain literacy benefits from doing so.

“Actually, having exposure to that is helpful for children. Through books such as At the Marae, people are able to tap into the benefits of bilingualism.”

Seals also notes that the current decision removes valuable opportunities for whānau to be involved in early literacy.

“They’ve removed the ability for whānau to support [learning] by removing the small books… It puts so much unfair pressure on teachers and assumes they all know how to pronounce the sounds.”

Recent research, she says, also directly contradicts the Ministry’s rationale.

“There are approximately 70 Māori words that all Kiwis are familiar with. There’s an underlying ability to decode and understand te reo Māori at a much more advanced rate than in most countries.”

“This is a continuation of colonial logic” - Māori principals

Māori principals across Aotearoa have also condemned the Ministry’s move, calling it a direct attack on te reo Māori and a form of educational violence.

Te Akatea Māori Principals’ Association says the rationale “echoes the colonial policies of the 19th century” and amounts to cultural suppression.

“Our members draw a direct parallel between this action and historic acts of colonisation, such as the Education Ordinance Act of 1847 and the Native Schools Act of 1867… These are acts of racism, cultural suppression, and are deliberate attempts to recolonise our education system.”

The group is calling for an immediate reversal of the decision and a recommitment to te reo Māori resources in schools.

The Minister for Education, Erica Stanford, wouldn’t be interviewed for this story.