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Speaker 1: Now we've got the data to back up the vibes.

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Speaker 1: There really has been a huge increase in kids and

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Speaker 1: adults learning tod al Mari and learning in today al Mari.

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Speaker 1: So last year more than twenty eight thousand school kids

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Speaker 1: were taught the curriculum more than half the time in

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Speaker 1: the language, and that is up seventy one percent on

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Speaker 1: twenty five years ago. Marii Language advocate Stacy Morrison is

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Speaker 1: with us now. Stacey, Hello, Kyoder, So am I right

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Speaker 1: in thinking that all up? It's about sixty percent of

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Speaker 1: school kids who are learning something, even if it's just

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Speaker 1: a song.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the numbers that we're talking about, as you say,

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Speaker 2: are from twenty five years ago, so it's a big jump,

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Speaker 2: and those are kids who are in a more i

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Speaker 2: guess a bilingual unit kind of level. So the levels

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Speaker 2: go up from six to level one is when they're

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Speaker 2: in almost immersion eighty one to ninety nine percent. But

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Speaker 2: what we're talking about is the kids whore at level three,

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Speaker 2: which is about you know, seven to twelve hours in

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Speaker 2: a week, and then level five is just when it's

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Speaker 2: a separate subject. Level six is when they just have

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Speaker 2: a little bit. So in terms of how many kids.

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Speaker 2: I mean, they're still two hundred fifty thousand kids. They

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Speaker 2: have no Tedel Mahdi education at all, but it is

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Speaker 2: obviously there's I guess what you've really pointed out is

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Speaker 2: there's a biggest spike in schools that we sort of

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Speaker 2: call a English medium or mainstream school having a bilingual

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Speaker 2: unit or a really good delivery of Tede el Mahdi.

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Speaker 1: I'm imagining that part of the problem here and why

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Speaker 1: these numbers can't get much faster is because we just

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Speaker 1: don't have enough teachers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's one of the things, I guess. But

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Speaker 2: you know, you don't have to be a Maori teacher

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Speaker 2: or even a fluent Maori speaking teacher to teach a

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Speaker 2: little bit. So that's what we saw when they did

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Speaker 2: have the program Taho Tedel that was to help teachers

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Speaker 2: at every level to engage wherever they were, so it

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Speaker 2: kind of boosted their confidence to bring in a bit. So,

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Speaker 2: like you say, if it's just songs, anyone can do that.

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Speaker 2: You don't need a fluent Maori speaking Marti teachers to

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Speaker 2: do that. So it's about I guess how a school

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Speaker 2: can be quite creative and meet their community in terms

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Speaker 2: of where they want to be in terms of having

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Speaker 2: a little bit of their and a little bit of

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Speaker 2: culture at the school.

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Speaker 1: Stacey, if what we want to get to though, is proper,

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Speaker 1: proper bilingualism across the country. Are not these numbers aren't

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Speaker 1: high enough, are they?

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Speaker 2: No, they're not. You're completely right, and so well as

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Speaker 2: I say, I do think it's an everybody thing, not

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Speaker 2: just the teachers who are already their influent. So one

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Speaker 2: thing is valuing bilingualism. And I love the fact that

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Speaker 2: you pointed out it's about bilingualism because there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of benefits of that, and about half the people in

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Speaker 2: the world are bilingual at least, So the benefits of

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Speaker 2: those transferable skills that kids get when they have got

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Speaker 2: that mental gym happening of learning across languages. First of all,

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Speaker 2: we need to value at that, and then we can go, okay,

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Speaker 2: so how are we going to do that so that

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Speaker 2: we know our kids are having an education that's really

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Speaker 2: seated in coming from this country, and then their bilingualism

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Speaker 2: and their transferable skills can go right across the education

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Speaker 2: and then their professional life as well. So first of

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Speaker 2: all we have to value it, and then we have

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Speaker 2: to resource it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Stacey, thanks very much, really appreciate your time. Mate,

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Speaker 1: look after yourself. That's Stacy Morrison, Maldi Language advocate. For

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