Support for Pacific language education

  • Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga
  • Steven Joyce
Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Pacific Peoples

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Minister for Pacific Peoples Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga have announced $763,000 funding for the Pasifika Education Centre in South Auckland.

“The Pasifika Education Centre (PEC) did not qualify for the full amount of the contestable Adult and Community Education (ACE) funding which it applied for, but I consider the work the centre does around Pacific languages and cultural education boosts Pasifika skills and is in the national interest to be funded,” Mr Joyce says.

“Improving the skills of Pasifika people is crucial to New Zealand’s future, so we’ve funded the PEC for a year while they work with the Tertiary Education Commission to develop a long-term sustainable model to provide community-based Pasifika language and cultural education that supports Pasifika people to develop the skills they need.”

The PEC will also work alongside the Manukau Institute of Technology and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples to develop the new model. 

“I have been working with PEC for several months and I am pleased we have found a way to support the centre,” says Mr Lotu-Iiga.

“It is important to keep the languages and cultures of Pacific people in New Zealand alive, and that people of all ages have access to learning. I am excited about what the centre will achieve in the community.”