Towards equitable outcomes: Jan Tinetti outlines the government's approach to education with particular emphasis on the needs of Pacific community and Pacific Islands students.

• Author: Tinetti, Jan

Prior to the pandemic, our education system was undergoing a transformation to deliver equitable outcomes for all learners. Our journey began with Korero Matauranga in 2018. This was a nationwide conversation with educators, learners, parents and whanau, Maori and Pacific communities, disabled people, business groups and many others on what the pressing issues were in the education system that prevent our children and young people from succeeding. They told us that to support learner success, we must transform towards an equitable and inclusive education system that recognises the language, culture and identity of every learner, and one that fosters powerful connections with families and communities in supporting learning of our children and young people.

To enable this, we needed to address these issues from different system levels--from policy, engagement and implementation down to the cultural capabilities of every individual involved in supporting all learners in our education system. We began by reframing our legislative and policy settings. In 2020 we passed the new Education and Training Act, which provides a legislative framework to support the transformational changes we intend to make to enable an education system that supports learner health, safety and well-being, assures the quality of the education and enacts the Treaty of Waitangi. To support this act, we developed the Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities and updated the Tertiary Education Strategy, which direct government, early learning, schooling and tertiary sector activities towards the actions that will make the biggest difference for all learners.

These priorities also guide the government's wider education work programme to reshape our education system, which includes the Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020-30. This country has a growing, diverse Pacific population. It is predicted that the proportion of Pacific children and young people will reach nearly 20 per cent of the learner population by 2030. With this comes many opportunities for the cultural and social growth of Aotearoa in the future. Education is key to realising the benefits from these opportunities. It provides strong foundations for life-long learning and enables our young people to contribute strongly to society. Currently, we have around 70 Pacific bilingual and immersion early learning services and around 35 schools offering Pacific bilingual and immersion education. While our education system has come a long way, with Maori and Pacific learners showing the greatest achievement gains over the last decade, they are still experiencing significant disparities in their education.

Transformation commitment

The Action Plan for Pacific Education maps the government's commitment to transforming outcomes for Pacific learners and families and signals how early learning services, schools and tertiary providers can achieve change for Pacific learners and their families. It sets a vision for Pacific education and five key system shifts to achieve this vision and includes government actions to achieve them.

Collaboration and partnership are built into the various streams of work underway as part of the plan, with feedback from schools, education leaders, Pacific families, churches and community groups being a key part of its implementation. Tapping into collective knowledge and building on what is working well for Pacific communities is key to ensuring that our system is delivering for all Pacific learners.

I am humbled to have the responsibility to oversee the Action Plan's progress under this government. I intend to refresh the Action Plan this year to include the next set of government actions to work towards the key shifts in the Action Plan and to further signal our commitment to Pacific languages in education.

As the world of work continues to evolve and digital technologies become more ingrained in our ways of living, it is critical for our education system to be able to keep up with the pace of change so all learners are equipped with the right skills to succeed in their chosen endeavours. We know that learners learn best when their languages, cultural capital, cultural intelligence and identity are respected, supported and...