The small regulatory shift that could have big impacts on mokopuna Māori

Research shows that when children know who they are and feel strong in their cultural identity, they succeed. So why is the government moving to scrap the requirement for ECE centres to support each child's right to do so?

Downgrading a law compelling early childhood centres to acknowledge children's culture is a backward step which may see tamariki Māori left behind while profits are put first, critics say.

The government plans to remove the legal requirements for the ECE sector to acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua, to support children's right to cultural confidence and teach about Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Minister for Regulation David Seymour said the changes are to "streamline" operational requirements and reduce the regulatory burden on centres, but opponents said it amounted to recolonisation.

"Initially I was angry," said Hawke's Bay-based Kaiako Penina Ria (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Pārau). "Not just for myself, but for my ancestors and whānau that fought for us to be recognised as tangata whenua. From that point of view, it feels like we're starting all over again."

Ria said the proposed law change reminded her of the stories she had heard from her grandparents and great-grandparents about how they were treated by the education system.

Assimilation enforced by the Native Schools Act in 1867 saw schooling conducted entirely in English, with the curriculum skewed towards instruction in manual and domestic skills. Mātauranga Māori and cultural practices were sidelined, and for decades Māori were also punished for speaking te reo Māori at school, contributing to the loss of the language and deepening educational inequities.

"Our whānau went through so much so we could have the future that they wanted. I feel like it's important that we carry that on for them, and also for our future generations," Ria said.

Currently, ECE centres must meet minimum standards set by the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The review recommended that only 26 of the current 98 licensing criteria be retained in full with the rest amended, merged, downgraded or removed.

"The government is addressing ECE regulations to ensure child safety is priority number one, children's education is number two, and parental choice is number three," Seymour said.

"The ethnic background of the child shouldn't have any bearing on this, and providers shouldn't be forced to worry about the treaty when their priorities are keeping children safe and educating."

Academic research has previously highlighted the importance of children feeling secure and supported in their culture.

"There is little doubt that a secure cultural identity is essential for wellbeing and for educational and societal participation and success. It is a key factor in people's sense of self and their relationships with others," a report commissioned by the Education Review Office (ERO) said.

Ria said for preschool children, acknowledging culture included using waiata, karakia, speaking te reo Māori, and teaching of purākau (traditional Māori stories).

"We value where they come from, we learn about their whakapapa and what's important to them, a lot of recognition of who they are, their uniqueness.

"Working in mainstream and seeing the importance for tamariki Māori, to know where they come from and learn about their heritage. To me, that's important, it's something that I wish I would've had when I was younger."

While there was a focus on te ao Māori, ECE centres also support other cultures, such as celebrating the start of Chinese Lunar New Year.

Kirikiriroa-based kaiako and NZEI Te Riu Roa Early Childhood representative Zane McCarthy said that while his centre will likely opt to keep the bicultural aspects, he worried some centres would drop them altogether.

"There are bad actors. There are bad apples and poor employers who will quash it. It's basically colonisation again."

McCarthy was particularly concerned about the private centres, which he said made up around 75 percent of the sector.

"A lot of that 75 percent have profit-driven motives. When you've got a teacher workforce who are crying out for professional development to learn about te ao Māori, they're needing support in order to uphold Te Tiriti and mokopuna Māori. But that comes at a cost, and so when you've got profit-driven motives, they're going to look to scrap that aspect in order to make the bottom line look better."

He said there have been big benefits of the cultural requirements in the past.

"Whānau have learned, have grown and learnt alongside their tamariki, when they're coming home with new kupu, waiata, purākau, that they're learning from them, and they're becoming even bolder in their own culture and identity as well."

Green Party MP and spokesperson for ECE Benjamin Doyle said the move prioritised corporate greed and profit over public good and well-being.

"There will be some private ECE owners who are looking to make a profit over everything else, and so they'll see that as an unnecessary thing to do anymore, because it's not related to their licensing, they'll just opt not to."

Doyle said celebrating culture and identity can make Māori learners feel seen.

"When they are nurtured by waiata and purākau, when they are nurtured by those values of manaakitanga and whānaungatanga, it increases their hauora, their well-being. And that is not intangible, right? It's tangible."

By taking the current requirements away, Doyle said, the evidence shows tamariki Māori will not thrive.

"Learning does not occur. It cannot occur when we do not celebrate identity and culture. So it will have a huge impact on our tamariki. And we know that when tamariki thrive, whānau thrive, and if tamariki are suffering, whānau suffer."

The Early Childhood Council represents childcare centre owners and managers in the ECE sector, speaking for more than 1500 centres across Aotearoa.

Early Childhood Council chief executive Simon Laube said he was not concerned the change would result in a lack of acknowledgement of children's culture, and questioned whether they should have even been a requirement for centres to open in the first place.

"Was it really right to give it to a service provider as a regulation?"

Responding to the argument that private providers will prioritise profit over the well-being of children, Laube said that was not the reality he saw day-to-day.

"We spend our time trying to support providers who can't actually pay their current costs of business so they are not profitable and that's a strong kind of trend across the sector. It's quite hard to even really engage with that argument properly, because we're struggling to just keep our centers going with what the current expectations are."

Removing requirements around cultural aspects would not even necessarily result in cost-savings, Laube said.

"If you really do think about it in terms of business costs, what could they save money on there? You still need to have resources for learning, would they not have language in them? Would they not have people in them? Would that not include culture? It's very hard to cut out culture from a people-based industry."

Cabinet has accepted the recommendations, and Regulation Minister David Seymour will introduce the Education and Training (Early Childhood Education Reform) Amendment Bill in July.

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