New funding for Pacific Education through Budget 19

What you shared with us in 2018 is shaping our work. Through Budget 19, we have developed a package of initiatives to invest in areas that matter to Pacific communities and to expand initiatives you told us are working well for your families and communities.

We are investing $27.4million over four years to support Pacific learners and their families to achieve their aspirations. This includes:

  • $1m over one year to develop a professional learning and development programme with specific resources and tools for implementing Tapasā, a cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners. Tapasā is a resource for all teachers of Pacific learners to support teachers to become more culturally aware, confident and competent when engaging with Pacific learners and their parents, families and communities.
  • $2.3m over four years to extend the Pasifika Early Literacy Project to early learning services and more English medium primary schools.  This involves supporting early literacy through building teacher capability and developing strong community school/early learning partnerships. The PELP promotes the development of reciprocal partnerships between home and school and is delivered to support the use of dual language resources.
  • $7.2 m over four years to deliver targeted provision of the Developing Mathematical Communities of Inquiry (DMIC) programme for up to 50 additional schools over four years to grow the cultural competency, mathematics teaching capability and responsiveness of teachers in the identified schools.
  • $2.3m over four years to deliver projects in South Waikato, Wellington, and Auckland to support Pacific learners and families from the New Zealand realm countries of Niue, the Cook Islands and Tokelau, to support competencies in Pacific realm languages and English and to successfully transition into schooling.
  • $9.2m over four years to strengthen Pacific PowerUP and introduce new key features that include a stronger focus on vocational pathways, Pacific language resources and guided resource kits for use in schools and with parents and communities,  in urban, regional and emerging regions.
  • $251,000 over 2 years to develop bilingual resources in gagana Sāmoa, lea faka Tonga and te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani, with a focus on valuing and affirming culture and identity, and resources and tools to support teachers to use quality assessment practices in Pacific bilingual contexts, to provide quality opportunities to learn in Pacific languages.
  • $5.1m over 4 years to support engagement with Pacific families and communities on the Action Plan for Pacific Education and deliver the Action Plan over four years.

You can contact us for more information here at pacific.educationconversation@education.govt.nz. You can find updates on these initiatives here on this page.

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