Southern polytech gears up for tutoring more students by translating automotive engineering material into te reo

The polytechnic sector has been getting a bad press in recent times.

Former Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker has demanded an apology from Education Minister Chris Hipkins for turning the country’s polytechnic education system into “a national disgrace”.

The Otago Daily Times has described the centralising of New Zealand’s 16 polytechnics into one grand organisation, Te Pukenga, as a “shambles”.

National’s Tertiary Education spokesperson and Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds says polytechnics in the South are being forced to cut millions from their budgets because the Government’s mega-merger polytechnic entity Te Pūkenga is in such a mess,

Among the more disturbing reports, new data shows one-third of first year polytechnic students quit their studies last year and some qualifications were unable to retain any learners at all.

Across the country, 12,642 equivalent full-time students began courses at polytechnics last year, but 4124 – or 32.6% – dropped out , according to the figures released under the Official Information Act.

The 15 polytechnics that make up Te Pūkenga offered a total of 227 qualifications last year, but on 51 courses, at least half of all students quit.

Karl du Fresne on virtue signalling, Kiri Allan, Three Waters and secret donations

This article was published today on Karl du Fresne’s blog (HERE).

Newly promoted minister Kiritapu Allan has said what a lot of people think but feel unable to say. 

She lashed out in a tweet against “tokenistic” use of te reo by employees of DOC “as an attempt to show govt depts are culturally competent”. She told Stuff she encouraged the use of the Maori language, but wanted it used “with integrity”.

“You want to use te reo, you use it with integrity and use it responsibly,” Stuff quoted Allan as saying. “This isn’t a ‘everybody go out and use mahi and kaupapa’ and say you have a deep and enduring relationship with te ao Māori.”

Of course this shouldn’t apply only to DOC, where Allan was in charge before this week’s cabinet reshuffle resulted in her elevation to the justice portfolio. The same message could be directed at all government agencies where middle-class Pakeha public servants, eager to demonstrate their solidarity with the tangata whenua, indulge in an ostentatious display of virtue-signalling by using token Maori words and phrases.

I wonder whether Radio New Zealand also got the memo. 

Graham Adams: Going where the media won’t

Behind the coverage of David Seymour’s rise in the polls and Maori Language Week lurk inconvenient truths. Graham Adams argues journalists need to be more even-handed to maintain their credibility.

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IN THE HULLABALOO that followed Curia’s poll results last week, the media focused mainly on the startling fact that National’s support had collapsed to 21.3 per cent — with all its dire implications for Judith Collins continuing as the party’s leader.

Predictably, the dismal figures spawned a flurry of articles predicting a palace coup — with the rider that the mutiny could not be immediate because Level 4 lockdown prevented the party’s Auckland MPs flying to Wellington en masse to disembowel their leader in person. A coup conducted over Zoom would have been unseemly and presumably unsatisfying to those consumed with blood lust.

The fact that Act reached its highest number in any poll — at 14.9 per cent — was also widely covered, partly because it was seen as a fresh humiliation for Collins, with the party described as “hot on National’s heels”.

While the media was keen to dissect the causes for Collins’ poor showing, however, it didn’t seem nearly as interested in analysing possible reasons for David Seymour’s ascension — including the role played by his tweet revealing the confidential code prioritising access to vaccinations for Māori.

Seymour posted the tweet at 9.49am on September 6. The poll of 1000 respondents was conducted between September 5 and September 9, with the median responses on September 7.

In short, nearly all the polling occurred in the days immediately after Seymour’s message appeared, which also saw his defence of his actions published prominently in the NZ Herald on September 8.

It is clear that despite the widespread condemnation he received in the media — ranging from the Māori Party describing the tweet as a “lowlife move” to the extraordinary response of Newshub’s political editor, Tova O’Brien, calling him a “cockwomble” — his popularity hit new highs.

Report makes case for more money for our mental wellbeing (but it is presented in a maddening mix of Te Reo and English)

The only statement to emerge from the Beehive in the past two days was cheery in tone but foreshadowed further increases in the funding devoted to mental health.    

The statement was issued by Health Minister Andrew Little, who welcomed the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s assessment that transformation of New Zealand’s approach to mental health and addiction is under way.

“This is an important step in the Government’s work to provide better and equitable mental health and wellbeing outcomes for all people in New Zealand after years of underfunding,” Andrew Little said.

His statement didn’t mention how many millions are being devoted to mental health and wellbeing to remedy this under-funding.  The report does provide that information and (no surprises here, surely) it makes the case for more money.

The report (again, no surprises because it has become common practice for the state sector) has been published in a bizarre and formidable blend of English and te reo.

More than formidable, it can be almost impenetrable in places:

How a council landed in deep water for appropriating a te reo slogan – and where not to go for advice on avoiding controversy

Point of Order noted with interest the news from the Maori Language Commission last year that research had shown the benefits which enterprises see in taking part in the revitalisation of te reo Māori. 

The press statement was headed Good for te reo, good for business!

We are aware, too, that the government strategy for te reo Māori aims at having a million New Zealanders speaking basic te reo by 2040. 

Ministers are doing their bit by injecting plenty of te reo into their speeches and press statements and by applying te reo words (for example) to the names of government agencies in preference to pragmatic English words that instantly signal an agency’s function to the great bulk of the country’s citizens (Oranga Tamariki rather than Ministry for Children).    

Alas, the commission tells us it not the right place to go for guidance on how to avoid causing offence when using te reo (at least, not in the circumstances we are about to describe).  

Its job is revitalising the language.   It is up to local iwi and councils to determine how local whakatauki is used.

Nanaia Mahuta joins Jones in announcing a $2.96m handout – but the PM signals the plug will be pulled on the PGF

News about the Provincial Growth Fund, which often features in our daily Latest from the Beehive reports, typically involve announcements of the latest grants or loans.

Today Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced a battle site of the 1860s Land Wars will receive $2.96 million from the fund.

But other news about the PGF came not from the Beehive, but from the Labour and New Zealand First Parties.     

First, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern advised that the plug will be pulled on it if she leads the next government (presumably without a New Zealand First partner).

A new trough – with a weak $200 million gruel rather than $3 billion chowder – will be established in its place.

Firms wanting to use te reo in their branding should check with Te Hamua Nikora as well as IPONZ

Learning Māori is first and foremost about having fun, according to Precious Clark, director of Maurea Consulting LTD, in a Newshub report on learning te reo Maori and embracing tikanga.

“It’s about giving people the tools so they can pronounce our words correctly and it’s about giving them the confidence to give it a go,” she said.

But getting it right isn’t always easy,  Newshub’s Mike McRoberts pointed out.

His report recalled the recent experience of a Canadian brewery which apologised after making a beer with New Zealand hops which it called the Pale Ale Huruhuru.

“The strict translation means feather, but it’s more commonly used to describe pubic hair. 

“After being called out by language watchdog Te Hamua Nikora, the brewery apologised.”

The beer company wasn’t alone.  A leather shop in Wellington apologised, too, after coming under fire for unwittingly taking its name from the Māori word “huruhuru”.

$13m granted to teach Siri to speak Te Reo – but some of it will be directed to the British and US boffins whose help is needed

The Taxpayers Union promptly picked up on the spending of millions of dollars of public money, almost beating the Point of Order Trough Monitor to sound an alert.

The union focussed on just one of four projects to be funded from a trough labelled “Strategic Science Investment Fund”.  This project – to receive $13 million of taxpayers’ money – aims to teach Siri to speak Te Reo.

Siri (Wikepedia explains) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.’s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS and audioOS operating systems^.   

Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Wood made special mention of Siri in her press statement.

The Taxpayers Union, however, challenged the wisdom of this spending in a press statement headed $13 million teaching Siri to use Te Reo is an IT boondoggle.

A boondoggle (for those unfamiliar with the expression) is a project that is considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.

How Andrew Becroft is nudging the pakeha press to get out and learn te reo

There was a time when your Point of Order editorial team’s vocabularies enabled them to comprehend most of the press statements that came their way.

No longer.

It has become fashionable in government circles to inject te reo into English-language press statements, thereby creating a curious Kiwi argot.  The expectation, presumably, is that recipients are as well versed in te reo as the writers of these statements, or that they will be embarrassed into studying the language rather than confess to not knowing.

At the very least, a recipient who stumbles on an unfamiliar word will try to find out what it means.

Such a statement crossed our desk the other day, headed  The revolution that failed to eventuate.

It came from Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft and said:

Almost 30 years ago New Zealand had the opportunity to revolutionise how we whakamana Māori children and young people affected by the Care and Protection and Youth Justice systems. It came with the 1989 Children Young Person’s and their Families Act, legislation that, at least in its approach to indigenous children, could be described as a statutory prescription for revolution.