A South Auckland principal says students should not have to leave their culture at the gate when they enter a school.
The comments come as Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate Middle School opened its first Māori and Sāmoan bilingual units.
The milestone was marked at a school celebration last week, bringing together students, families and community leaders who have long pushed for stronger bilingual pathways.
Principal Estear Peautau said the initiative placed language and identity at the centre of learning.
“On my very first day, a parent asked me what I was going to do about bilingual pathways in the Middle School. That question stayed with me,” she said.
“It reaffirmed the responsibility we have to ensure our tamariki never have to leave their culture at the door to succeed academically.”
The units deliver the curriculum in te reo Māori and gagana Sāmoa, with early attendance rates between 85 and 90 percent.
Education expert John McCaffery said the development builds on decades of community-led advocacy in South Auckland.
As associate principal at Clydemore Primary School in Ōtara in 1980, he helped establish the first urban Māori bilingual unit in 1981, followed by the country’s first Sāmoan bilingual unit in 1987 after strong demand from local families.
He said progress had been driven by communities.
“The only people who are really taking that challenge up in a big way is the communities,” he said.
“So that’s why we acknowledge the communities and praise them because this has been, it’s like a never-ending struggle.
“These are the children of grandparents who fought that struggle in the late 70s and early 80s.
“They’re still struggling. But it’s not a negative thing, it’s something worth fighting for and something great that’s been achieved here today.”
Peautau said the reopening also addressed a long-standing gap in provision after earlier Sāmoan bilingual learning was lost when schools merged, leaving students without a continuous pathway for more than two decades.
“Unfortunately, when our three schools became a collegiate, those Samoan units did not carry over. The pathway was interrupted,” she said.
“For 21 years, we had been the opposite. We were the disconnect.”
She said the new unit reflected renewed efforts driven by community advocacy.
“Without your passion, your drive, and your unwavering commitment to these bilingual pathways, today simply would not have been possible.”
Parent Fuaimamao Baice said the programme restored a missing link for families.
“It means a lot. As the saying, ‘soso’o le fau ma le fau’ [a Sāmoan proverb meaning unity is strength], because it was disconnected.”
She said bilingual learning had previously been limited to primary level, with no pathway into middle school, but the new unit now provided a continuous pathway.
“Now it’s connected and it’s a joy for me,” she said. “So they [children] can learn our language and know our culture.”
Community leader Vasa Fia Collins said the opening reflected years of collective effort.
“This is a culmination of blood, sweat and tears from the community. So I don’t think today would have happened in isolation,” she said.
“I absolutely believe it was a collective effort. The parents, the teachers, the staff, all of the school community and the students.”
Collins said culturally grounded learning environments improved engagement and outcomes.
“We know there’s overwhelming empirical evidence that when they know their home languages, their mother tongue, they will succeed in everything else in life.”
“When you know you’re going to be in and amongst people that celebrate your history, your past, speaking in your language and making you feel like you belong, yeah, I want to come to school too.”
Ministry of Education Early Learning at Te Mahau chief advisor Stephanie Ramirez said there was significant growth in demand for Māori medium and Pacific bilingual education, particularly in South Auckland.
She said students in higher levels of immersion were achieving results comparable to, and in some cases stronger than, those in English-medium settings.
Dr Salainaoloa Wilson-Uili from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, said strengthening bilingual pathways remained a priority.
“One of the key objectives is strengthening the pathways to be able to learn your Pacific languages, but also learn in your Pacific languages,” she said.
Despite growing demand, access to bilingual pathways remained uneven across Auckland, often depending on individual schools and community advocacy.
Manukau ward councillor Alf Filipaina said the opening reflected strong local demand but highlighted a wider gap.
“What it means is that people and the parents and the students and the schools are yearning to do that in South Auckland,” he said.
“The challenge now, and this could be Ministry of Education, is to end up having initiatives to put bilingual classes together across Tāmaki Makaurau and Aotearoa.”
The Ministry said it was working to expand bilingual education in high-growth areas, but did not outline specific nationwide initiatives or timelines.
