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Photo by Tristan Hooker

There is a nationwide shortage of teachers skilled in te reo Māori. Times have changed and continue to change within kaupapa Māori education, with the language being brought back from what was described as a "critical near-death stage" in a 1971 research report.

The decades following that report have seen a celebrated regeneration of te reo Māori, with the establishment and growth of Kōhanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Māori throughout the country.

However, there is still a shortage of teachers in the kura kaupapa Māori sector.

Massey University - Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa – is encouraging te reo speakers to enrol in one of its two full immersion te reo Māori teaching programmes, Te Aho Tātairangi Bachelor of Teaching and Learning Kura kaupapa Māori and Te Aho Paerewa Post Graduate Diploma of Learning and Teaching Māori Medium. Both have options of studying in mixed mode online and wānanga either, full or part time.

Raukura Tiopira completed the Bachelor of Teaching Māori Medium/Diploma in Māori Education in 2019.

She completed Te Aho Tātairangi in 2019 and is now in her second year as a primary school teacher at her chosen Kura Kaupapa Māori.

"It was an exciting four years and it prepared me well for work," she says of her time studying online.

"The online learning environment was good because you needed to have a supportive school to be on the course. If we needed help, we could ask the teachers or the principals at our respective kura kaupapa.

"Most of the lecturers on the bachelor Te Aho Tātairangi are kura kaupapa principals, which really helped. I thought it was going to be hard coming straight out of high school but it was actually surprisingly easy."

Professor Huia Tomlins Jahnke, head of Massey's School of Māori Education, developed Te Aho Tatairangi in 2012.

Professor Huia Tomlins Jahnke, Director of Toi Kura the Centre for Māori Education in Te Pūtahi a Toi, developed Te Aho Tatairangi in partnership with Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori in 2012 as a distance learning programme and says the recent lockdowns may have highlighted an opportunity for students to engage in the online mode of learning.

"That might actually be an impetus for people to retrain," she says. "Although our research shows Māori are less likely to do well in an online environment, it's the one way we've managed to attract a national spread. Our students come from across the full length and breadth of the country, which we weren't able to do when we were a face-to-face programme and students had to relocate to Palmerston North. Now they are able to stay in their home area and study to become a teacher in kura kaupapa Māori."

Wharemako Paewai graduated from Te Aho Tātairangi in 2018.

​Wharemako Paewai graduated from Te Aho Tātairangi in 2018 and is now a full-time teacher at a Kura Kaupapa Māori in Dannevirke.

"I found the practical experience of going into a kura like the one I work in now really helped. There's nothing better than learning within a kura to get used to the type of workload.

Paewai says he plans to spend the next few years teaching, "perfecting my craft and giving back to the kura I was raised in.

"I suppose that's a big reason why I went to Massey and did Te Aho Tātairangi. To try and find a way to give back to my kura and my kohanga reo, which is what I'm doing."