Nga Peka Mātauranga o Waitaha
 Christchurch

BACKGROUND

The Christchurch-based provider caters for adult learners who want to re-enter the education system.

Most of the 29 students enrolled with Nga Peka Mātauranga are between 30-60 years old, many of them have been out of the work-force for a long period of time, some students have spent many years raising children at home and others have been in low-paid or low-skilled jobs.

Evelyn Riddell managing the paper war

"Teaching tikanga and Te Reo is another way of delivering life-skills," says Evelyn. "I've seen the difference in our students who have learnt Te Reo and tikanga. They get a huge boost from having that knowledge instilled back in their lives. It gives them the confidence to learn more and achieve."

ACCREDITATION STATUS

Nga Peka Mātauranga is accredited for a range of Māori and Core Generic unit standards. These are the field Māori unit standards it is accredited to assess against:

Like all private providers, Nga Peka Mātauranga had to apply to NZQA for every field it wished to assess against. There is no 'general accreditation' that providers can apply for as there is for secondary schools. Although a provider can apply to have its accreditation extended to cover an entire field.

PROGRAMME

Like the first case study, Nga Peka Mātauranga has not introduced any new courses to prepare students for Te Waharoa. Management simply looked at existing programmes to see how students could accumulate enough field Māori credits to gain the National Certificate in Māori (level 2) from their current courses.

Nga Peka Mātauranga runs five 48-week long programmes; including three unique courses that supports adult students studying at Canterbury University. Most of the students on this course are graduates from Nga Peka Matuaranga's Whaia Te Reo course. There is also a full-time Māori Performing Arts and Craft programme that has a large Reo Māori component.

Evelyn expects most of the students on the Reo Māori and Māori Performing Arts courses will earn enough credits to achieve Te Waharoa. "We complete most of our assessments in the last half of the programme. That gives our students plenty of time to settle in," says Evelyn.

WHERE ARE THE 80 CREDITS COMING FROM?

Evelyn thinks most students on the Reo Māori and Māori Performing Arts programme will earn at least 90-100 credits over the year, most of these credits will be in field Māori . The 80 credits required for Te Waharoa will come from:

	Nga Peka students use the Ataarangi method to master te reo Māori

"Most of them are not going to get enough credits in a specific sub-field to gain a specialised national qualification in one year. So Te Waharoa will provide them with a more immediate challenge and a taste of success."