October 22, 2012
Kohanga reo learning place for whole whanau
The Maori Party will be pushing for quick action on the Waitangi Tribunal’s Kohanga Reo Report.
The report highlighted systemic under-funding of kohanga reo compared with other early childhood education, as well as long-running tensions between the Kohanga Reo National Trust and the Education Ministry.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says the ministry’s failure to understand the wider context of kohanga has damaged the whole thrust for preservations of Maori language and culture.
"I think that if we can return to the values of whanaungatanga, having the extended whanau engaged so that the whanau are all getting the reo together. We continue to believe that kohanga reo is a vital place for us to begin reinstalling the language not only to our mokopuna but to the whanau," she says.