Zone Out: How Māori education is affecting school rolls

Thursday, 27 March 2025

This week, The Post is looking at the relationship between housing affordability and school zoning in Wellington. Today, in the fifth article in our Zone Out series, Hanna McCallum reports on a factor beyond property values: the growth of Māori education.

Each term, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Whānui welcomes between 10 to 15 new pupils at its kura in Alicetown, Lower Hutt.

In a decade, its roll has increased 123% from 173 students in 2014 to 385 in 2024.

Acting principal Koro Heremia expects the demand to continue as it services 17 kōhanga reo in the region and the demand for Māori medium education continues. It is also the only kura kaupapa Māori in Hutt City.

“Māori education is a way of life,” he says, with many whānau having missed out on the opportunity, particularly those who had moved to urban centres.

“However, they have the passion and drive to ensure their children will aspire to be our next generation of leaders in Māoridom.”

For our series Zone Out, The Post has looked at the relationship between property prices and school enrolments at primaries across wider Wellington. One thing that jumped out in our analysis was that of the 10 fastest growing unzoned schools, though composite schools (year 1-15), three were kura kaupapa Māori.

Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna in Seatoun went from 81 to 134 students in a decade with a 65% growth.

Similarly, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Wairarapa went from 81 to 135. Principal Pip Rimene says the roll had almost doubled in the last five years and is expected to reach 160 students at the start of next term.

It is reflective of a commitment from kōhanga reo to continue in Māori education, she says. It is also the only kura kaupapa Māori in the Wairarapa.

The kura had four roll growth classrooms put in last year but Rimene is expecting for their space to be in deficit again. The kura was advised by the Ministry of Education to consider a roll enrolment scheme – something Rimene is appalled by.

Already it restricts the new students it accepts to graduates of the three local kōhanga reo, all of which are full and with wait lists.

“What kind of kura does that make us to then say ‘oh sorry, we’re full, we can’t take you – you have to go mainstream’.

“That doesn’t meet the needs of our whānau who are wanting this kaupapa for their tamariki.”

NCEA results last year of 90% achievement rates for level 1 and 100% for both level 2 and level 3 shows its kaupapa works for tamariki, she says.

“The demand for kura is only going to increase.”

The growth of Māori education is also reflected in how many students are taught in the Māori language more generally, including in mainstream programmes.

As at July 2024, there were 27,125 students enrolled in Māori medium education, 5636 more than five years earlier. This is 3.19% of the total school population, according to the Ministry of Education. Of those students, 95.5% identify as Māori.

There were 344 schools with at least one student enrolled in Māori medium education (students who are taught the curriculum in te reo Māori for more than half the year) which was 14 schools more than in July 2023.

Meanwhile, the number of students at mainstream schools who were taught in Māori some of the time or were learning te reo Māori as a language subject rose by 45% between 2019 and 2024, to 30.6% of the total student population.

The 2023 Census found that after English, the most widely spoken language was te reo Māori with 213,849 speakers, up from 185,955 in 2018 – hitting the 200,000 mark for the first time in the Census.

Naenae Primary School’s kaupapa Māori class has gone from one to seven classes in the last seven years.

Over the last two years, demand for its Samoan bilingual programme also grew so much that it increased from one class to three, principal Murray Bootten says.

The fact that Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Whanui is reaching capacity is almost certainly having a flow on effect to Naenae, he says.

Its Māori immersion, bilingual Samoan and special needs classes take students out-of-zone but they already have a waitlist for 2026.

Although Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Whānui is not strictly zoned, it does have an enrolment policy prioritising kōhanga reo graduates from within and outside of the region.

Other transfer students from kura or immersion classes are dependent on classroom numbers and staffing, Heremia says.

With a nationwide teacher shortage, the kura’s teacher aides are being encouraged to go to teacher training. Three are working towards their teaching qualifications whilst working at the kura.

Decline in enrolment in state integrated schools

Another demographic change that appears to be affecting school rolls is increasing secularisation but also state-integrated faith-based schools becoming unaffordable during a cost of living crisis.

The 2023 Census was the first in which half of New Zealand’s population reported having no religious affiliation.

At the same time, enrolments at many Catholic schools around Wellington have fallen over the past decade.

St Anthony's School in Seatoun, St Pius X School in Tītahi Bay and Cardinal McKeefry School in Wilton all have half as many pupils in 2024 than they did in 2014.

The rolls at St Teresa's School in Karori and St Francis De Sales School in Island Bay had also dropped by more than a third over the same period.

Both Cardinal McKeefry School in Wilton and St Bernard’s School in Brooklyn have requested their closure at the end of this year, the Ministry of Education confirmed. The roll at Cardinal McKeefry School dwindled to 54 students in 2024.

The school’s principal Peter Hijazeen declined to comment.

Kelly Ross, vicar for education and the director of the Catholic Schools Education Services also declined to comment.

Tomorrow’s article - and the last of our Zone Out series- is focused on secondary schools.