Education Minister Erica Stanford’s claims about Māori fact checked as lies
OUCH!
NZ minister’s justification for axing Maori language program misleads
AAP FACTCHECK – A claim by a New Zealand government minister that an evaluation of a Maori language program found no evidence it impacted student progress or achievement is misleading.
The evaluation didn’t look at the program’s impact on student progress and achievement. Rather, its focus was the administration of the program and the impact it had on participating teachers, which it found to be overwhelmingly positive.
Education Minister Erica Stanford made the claim in a government press release, announcing that $30 million of funding for the Te Ahu o te Reo Maori language program would be redirected towards resources for teaching maths.
“An evaluation of the program found no evidence it directly impacted progress and achievement for students,” Ms Stanford said. “The review also couldn’t quantify what impact the programme had on te reo Maori [Maori language] use in the classroom.”
Ms Stanford made similar comments during interviews on the funding decision with 1News and RNZ, and told the NZ Herald she gave “a lot of weight” to the evaluation report when deciding to cut the “poorly performing” program’s funding.
The claim was also repeated by Associate Education Minister David Seymour in a post on X.
However, the evaluation report mentioned did not set out to determine whether the program had any effect on student progress or achievement, or on Maori language use within the classroom.
AAP is the Australian Associated Press and their FactCheck is considered the best in the South Pacific, they have looked at the claims used by Stanford to justify the cut of $30million from Māori language programs and have found her justifications to be false!
AAP FactCheck asked Ms Stanford for evidence to support her claim that the report “found no evidence” of the program affecting student achievement or Maori language use in the classroom.
A spokesperson for Ms Stanford replied that the report “does not have” any evidence, adding: “Which is why the minister said it found no evidence of such things.”
While Ms Stanford is correct that the report does not have any evidence, it is misleading to say the evaluation “did not find” evidence because that was not what was sought, i.e. in the pre-agreed scope of the report.
THE VERDICT
Misleading – The claim is accurate in parts but information has also been presented incorrectly, out of context or omitted.
Isn’t it incredible that we need Australian Fact Checkers to tell us this Government is lying because our own Media is so weak and underfunded?
This Government is lying about the reasons they are slashing budgets and Kiwis are blind to what is really happening.
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How do we know Erica Stanford is lying…?
Her lips move.
We’re a poor country that subsists on hill farming. The result is that we can’t afford lots of nice things like MRI machines and elective surgeries. Māori language training comes well down the priority list!
Taking the piss again, very rich from a pomacomlately!
The old saying “lies, damned lies and statistics” is still relevant. The biggest problem is that so much of the population are so sure of their views that they do not accept any evidence that conflicts with the world as they want to see it.
I am not surprised that Stanford would make claims about things that were not asked in the evaluation since politicians are among the worst in being narrow minded although I would be surprised if the msm make a big thing about her error.
We can save money if we forget the new GP college @ Waikato University instead put the money into Auckland and Otago Universities no need for duplication something the COC like to talk about.
More lies from a bunch of fucken liars the COC.
More lies from a bunch of fucken liars the COC.
More lies from a bunch of fucken liars the COC. And look at the COC procurement processes they have hairs on it.
Working as a secondary teacher I found that confidence in languages builds self-esteem in students and this is reflected in student health and behaviour.
From my own experience I find this is true of Maori and Pasifika students in Aotearoa, it is true of Native American students in Canada (where I visited such a programme run by a colleague). It is true of Mongol students in Inner Mongolia ( from where I have just returned and where I spent several years teaching mixed classes of Han, Mongol, Manchu and Tibetan students).
In all cases I found students who are competent in the languages of ethnic group to which they belong do better at school because they feel confident of their abilities.
However do not take my word for it. Read Rod Ellis, Ann Fathman, Robert Kaplan and all the people who have studied the subject.
Oh my God! I am so sorry!
I forgot this is the government that routinely ignores advice from experts!
It wants the traditional values of colonial society where brown kids do not challenge the academic achievements of white kids.
If you want your children to be immersed in a Maori language environment while at school no problem send them to the local Kura kaupapa Māori otherwise there are much more pressing things on concentrate on.
Que the tired accusations of racism . .
open your mind read the comment above your shit .
Maori language is down on the priority list but stealing more Māori land is high on the priority list aye Andrew.
What a fucken jack up that is .Of corse she would not find any evidence as she never asked them the question .Much like the shut down of social housing when the UK government has just pumped billions into the very thing we have shut down .
I thought Stanford might be a bit more trust worthy than the rest of the arsehole but clearly birds of a feather flock together rings true .
No doubt we will have another enquiry into the abuse and torture in state care and ask a different question as ids the case in the second covid witch hunt as the first one which is being with held clearly will have said what a great job NZ did during the pandemic .
She worked for Murray MacCally, whoworked With Lynton Crosby,Of Hollow Men fame!
Erica Stanford reminds be of the wannabe “jolly hockey sticks brigade”. She stands in parliament so cock sure of herself giving lectures to people that actually know better . Of course she wouldn’t say the truth about the Maori language course because it doesn’t fit this racist government narrative and of course it costs money ,never mind the good that it actually does
This government is a cancer on NZ no wonder they did not want to fund cancer treatments .