Transcript
Education Ministry figures show about 700 early childhood centres use Pasifika languages at least some of the time, including 130 that use them more than half the time.
Lanuola Moe manages several services in South Auckland.
She says it's become extremely difficult to find qualified teachers who speak Pasifika languages.
"It's a major issue that we're experiencing at the moment. It's very difficult to find fluent speaking Pasifika educators, especially registered teachers. We just don't know how else to source. Like we've gone through the Education Gazette. Nobody's applying."
Lanuola Moe says there is a lot of competition for teachers and too few Pasifika-speakers are training to enter the profession.
Dr Pafitimai Sala Fa'asaulala Tagoilelagi-Leota, is the president of the association for Samoan preschools.
She says plenty of Pasifika women want to become early childhood teachers, but because they immigrated to New Zealand they have to sit an English test, and many fail or are deterred from even trying.
"The younger generation don't find ECE attractive but there are those who are a little bit more matured, in their late thirties who want to go back into a career now that the kids are a bit older but they can't get in merely because of the fact that they were not born and schooled here but they've lived here for over ten years."
Dr Tagoilelagi-Leota says the result is many services can't find qualified teachers who are also fluent in the language they teach in.
She says since 2011 teacher courses require level seven in the international IELTS English test, and that's too high.
"For goodness sake, 6.5 is for post graduate. Now how can you expect someone who's coming in at Level 5, Year 1, to get IELTS Level 7? It's beyond post-grad."
Dr Tagoilelagi-Leota says teachers should have good English, but it should be measured at the end of their course, not before entry.
Caroline Mareko from Wellington Kindergarten says the IELTS test is just too hard.
"Some of our staff in the association who've looked at the test, they wouldn't even pass it and they're born here so for our Pacific people to sit that test, it is very difficult, but not only that, it's the cost involved so if you fail the test it's another $285 to pay."
Caroline Mareko says the Education Council, which sets the standard for teachers, should consider a different English test.
But the council has already knocked back a request for a change to the English standard.
It says teaching is linguistically demanding and students enrolling in teacher education need sufficient English to be able to participate and succeed.
