A Te Wānanga o Aotearoa te reo Māori programme has proved itself so popular that it is struggling to keep pace with demand.

Papa Reo, the level 1 Home Based Learning te reo Māori programme has waiting lists stretching to late 2019 in some parts of New Zealand.

A recent Radio New Zealand story stated that a reo Māori beginners course (Papa Reo) in Wellington was full with the next intakes not available until September 2019.

The long waiting list is partly due to the programme’s own success but largely because of the Tertiary Education Commission’s Level 1 and 2 competitive process that determines the volume of enrolments Te Wānanga o Aotearoa can accept.

Lauren Te Tai, programme development and manager for Papa Reo, said the home delivery model was an opportunity to get te reo Māori into the home.

“When we decided to go down the home-based delivery model it was aimed to give people the option of learning te reo Māori in their homes but also to build confidence within their own environment and share with their whānau so everybody was learning together.”

Tauira on the 60-credit, 12 month-long programme that was launched last April receive four kete via the mail through the year.

Through books, CDs and games, tauira learn basic te reo Māori including pronunciation, placenames, simple mihi, basic conversations, pepeha and kupu hou.

Lauren said the programme was a pathway for tauira to continue to Te Ara Reo Māori Level 2 and other te reo Māori programmes within Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

“It’s really about building confidence. We are getting a lot of phone calls from home school parents who want to enrol their children.”

“We are unable to because of the age criteria but we have suggested parents enrol on the programme and they can do the programme together.”

Lauren said the first cohort of Papa Reo tauira have completed their studies and she is looking forward to receiving their feedback about the programme.