Mandarin lessons a model for Te Reo
Thursday, 23rd August, 2013
A model for teaching Chinese is being touted as a way to get Te Reo Maori into mainstream schools.
Raewyn Harrison from advocacy group Te Reo Tuatahi says the Mandarin model already has support from the Education Ministry, and it can be easily adapted to other languages.
She says language assistants fluent in both English and Mandarin have been working in Auckland schools.
“They might have a day in one school and another day in another school, and they go in and teach as many children as possible, and sometimes all the children in that school get at least 30 minutes of Mandarin a week. The teacher remains in the classroom as the mandirin class is being delivered, so that is the beauty of the model; you don’t have to be a qualified teacher, as has historically been argued, to go into the classroom and teach te reo,” Ms Harrison says.
She’s disappointed at the response she got from Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples to the model because it has the potential to introduce a critical mass of tamariki to te reo Maori.
