Add lang= to Jacket?

[Quoth]

That's excellent news.
Likely I only read very old books by English speaking NZ authors.

I hope it's done better than Irish in Irish schools which is going backwards for various reasons since 1922, though it depends on the school.

British were actually encouraging Irish in Primary schools in 1907 (I see from my Grandfather's school books). It dwindled from 17th C to 19th by choice of the Irish people believing they'd get on better in English. Elizabeth I in 16th C had a prayer book published in Irish. The first book of Irish names for children was published in 1923. For 100s of years people had been using either Catholic saints' names or Anglo-Norman names.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The current government has set an objective for te reo Māori to be taught in all primary schools by 2025.

What a waste of taxpayer money. Children are physically incapable of learning a foreign language in a primary school, they don't have the memory or attention control enough for that.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

What a waste of taxpayer money. Children are physically incapable of learning a foreign language in a primary school, they don't have the memory or attention control enough for that.

You have that backwards.
What little Spanish I learned, was in the Second Grade.
Many of the Bi-Lingual families I know, the pre-school age children already converse in at least 2.
(California, especially the Silicon Valley, is a melting pot of cultures. Pick a country and there are probably a community of folk from there.)

OTOH
When I dealt with older Adults (the ones that, many times, started the business) at the businesses I serviced, I would have to find the persons that spoke enough English so I could locate and fix the problem system.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

What a waste of taxpayer money. Children are physically incapable of learning a foreign language in a primary school, they don't have the memory or attention control enough for that.

It's easiest to learn a 2nd language in Primary School and even pre-school.

Also it's the local indigenous language. English is imported.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

What a waste of taxpayer money. Children are physically incapable of learning a foreign language in a primary school, they don't have the memory or attention control enough for that.

Bit rich coming from a person who is probably not entitled to vote in New Zealand, and never has and never will pay one cent of NZ tax.

BR

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by theducks

Many of the Bi-Lingual families I know, the pre-school age children already converse in at least 2.

Bilingual children do not learn their language in schools.

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's easiest to learn a 2nd language in Primary School and even pre-school.

Maori is not a second language for the NZ population; it is a foreign language for them (or a heritage one for the 15% maori minority). The primary school can't even teach foreign language to A1 level reliably; and A1 is nothing, especially for children.

As a bonus, try to guess how many guided learning hours it takes to teach a child color names in a foreign language.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

Bilingual children do not learn their language in schools.
Maori is not a second language for the NZ population; it is a foreign language for them (or a heritage one for the 15% maori minority). The primary school can't even teach foreign language to A1 level reliably; and A1 is nothing, especially for children.

As a bonus, try to guess how many guided learning hours it takes to teach a child color names in a foreign language.

I've a bilingual daughter, her 2nd language was never spoken at home, because her parents don't know it, and it depends how good the primary school is. Three of my sons aren't bad and the 4th went to a different primary school because we moved and has only one language.

I think you should stop digging.

Some countries do successfully teach children languages not known at home. But certainly it's a challenge in some countries.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

Bilingual children do not learn their language in schools.
Maori is not a second language for the NZ population; it is a foreign language for them (or a heritage one for the 15% maori minority). The primary school can't even teach foreign language to A1 level reliably; and A1 is nothing, especially for children.

As a bonus, try to guess how many guided learning hours it takes to teach a child color names in a foreign language.

The primary beneficiaries of teaching indigenous languages to settler children are the indigenous people. Assimilation of indigenous people onto the settler cultures has failed miserably just about everywhere it has been tried - so it's time for something new.

In the few schools where an Australian indigenous language is taught there are usually kids in the school who use it as their first language, and it is usually (always ??) 'taught' by the indigenous people who 'own' the language, within the context of sharing their specific culture. How do we teach infants to speak their mother tongue - by telling them stories.

I imagine something similar is being done in NZ, having only one Māori language should make their objective feasible. There are dozens of distinct indigenous languages in Australia (jealously guarded by their owners), there used to be hundreds, so it would be hard for Australia to have a similar objective language wise, but the stories share common elements across groups… e.g. the Seven Sisters songline inspired by the Pleiades constellation.

BR