Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education)): Thank you Mr Chair. The previous speaker Dr Parmjeet Parmar has just finished speaking about Māori achievement in education and I'd like to pick up from where she's left off. On page 203 of the annual review it talks about The ministry has a number of initiatives that support Māori and Pasifika students to progress and achieve in culturally responsive environments." I'd just like to talk about what we are doing to create those culturally responsive environments. What better cultural response is there than a young person being able to learn in their own language and hear their own language being spoken and being taught? I'd like to describe a bit about the initiative called Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori which is an initiative that fulfils and delivers on our promise to integrate Te Reo Māori throughout the curriculum by 2025. What we're doing is we're supporting teachers to grow their level of competence and confidence in Te Reo Māori. We're working to normalise Te Reo Māori in classrooms up to year 10. I think it's really important. If we're looking to engage children—not just Māori but children across all New Zealand schools—and trying to get them to engage in education helping them to engage and identify their learning in Te Reo Māori is really important. We're developing resources to support teachers. That's online resources that's person to person resources online support groups and other things. Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori is being rolled out in four takiwā—four regions—across the country initially. That's in the Waikato area the Taranaki-Whanganui area Horowhenua-Kāpiti area and also Te Wai Pounamu. We're rolling it out in those areas first and foremost because we know that there's going to be a 20 percent increase in the number of Māori students enrolled in those areas and it's important that they are able to engage in Te Reo. We launched this initiative just some three weeks ago and we're hoping to have 700 teachers engage in Te Ahu o Te Reo. Already we've had over 400 enrol in Te Ahu o Te Reo. Each area is free to develop Te Ahu o Te Reo as they see fit. So in Taranaki for example Dr Ruakere Hond is leading the charge there. They're using the Te Ātaarangi method to help teachers in a non-threatening way to pick up Te Reo Māori. Dr Hond said "it was a concerted effort to focus on language use which was something that has never been done before."—and that's in a Taranaki newspaper. The other initiative that we are launching is Te Kawa Matakura. Mai rānō—since time immemorial—the Crown has suppressed mātauranga Māori Māori knowledge. In other words if you go into any school in the country you'd be hard-pressed to find true mātauranga Māori being taught. That's despite the best efforts of kura kaupapa wharekura kōhanga reo. They're doing great work but what we don't actually really teach and certainly don't assess is as mātauranga Māori. So a child can achieve NCEA and that's very good. That shows that they can achieve NCEA; it doesn't actually show that they can achieve in mātauranga Māori. I remember attending in 2004 a hui mātauranga Māori in Taupō hosted by Tūwharetoa where one of the goals was that Māori children should be able to achieve as Māori. Now getting NCEA shows that they're achieving but it doesn't show that they're achieving as Māori. So what we're doing is launching Te Kawa Matakura. It'll be established from the beginning of next year. It is being established in Tai Tokerau in the first instance not because I'm the MP for Te Tai Tokerau but that was just how the tohunga the Māori educational experts who were engaged and involved in the design and development of Te Kawa Matakura and Te Ahu o Te Reo—it was their decision that it should start up there. Basically it will allow young people to learn that deep meaningful mātauranga Māori."