Professor Tom Nicholson

A Massey literacy specialist has suggested six steps that could see Maori children lead the world in reading within a decade.

Professor Tom Nicholson told a recent education conference in Christchurch that Maori have fallen behind in reading but could be “number one in the world" by 2018 if education authorities, teachers and parents adopted the steps for improvement.

Professor Nicholson, who co-heads Massey’s Centre of Excellence for Research on Children’s Literacy, advocates teaching how to sound out words using phonics, which has been largely dropped by the New Zealand education system in favour of a “whole language” approach.

He says that approach is failing Maori children particularly because phonics is well-suited to learning to read Te Reo and would provide an easy transition to English.

New Zealand was first in the world for reading achievement in 1970, dropped to 13th in 2001 and was ranked 24th out of 40 countries and five Canadian states by the latest (2006) Progress in International Reading Literacy Study statistics for 10-year-olds.

Those results prompted Professor Nicholson to design a six-point recovery plan targeting Maori children, whom he says are consistently at the bottom end of the PIRLS distribution.

“It appears we have an average education system where many children are not doing well – and where more than half of Maori boys are leaving school with not even a basic qualification,” he says.

Solutions for improving reading improvement include higher pay for teachers of Maori children, extra tuition for Maori children who are lagging behind with reading and introducing a phonics-based approach.

Research he has carried out in several lower socioeconomic schools in South Auckland has shown that regular tuition, once a week for 45 minutes in school hours and using a phonological approach, made a significant difference to children who were behind in reading and spelling.

Raising expectations of achievement are among steps needed to improve Maori reading levels, better research into improving the teaching of reading, and informing Maori parents about their children’s literacy levels, were also needed. 

His ideas, outlined out in a paper he presented titled How to Get Maori to Number 1 in the world again by 2018, gained wide support at the Christchurch summit, Nga Maata Waka 21st Century Education Wananga, with some participants planning to do marae-based reading assessments over the summer.

Expectations of Maori reading needed to change, he added. “When you look at reading scores for 10-year-old children in decile-10 schools in leafier suburbs, their reading comprehension is nearly a year above their chronological age. But in decile 1 schools in poverty areas, where there are many Maori children, their comprehension is nearly two years below their chronological age.”

“We have to want Maori children to match the achievement of decile-10, the top echelon.”

Professor Nicholson's propose six steps to improved Maori reading achievement:

• teach reading using phonics
• raise expectations and aim for decile-10 level of achievement
• extra tuition for Maori in need with specialist help in school and summer holidays
• pay teachers of Maori in low-decile schools more to keep and attract the best teachers
• inform and involve Maori parents in children’s learning, and use local marae for testing
• more research on how to improve reading and find out what really works best