Analysis: Tapasa Policy and Pacific Education Plan in Aotearoa, NZ

This report examines the Tapasa Policy and its effects on the Pacific Education Plan in Aotearoa, New Zealand, specifically focusing on early childhood education. The paper explores the policy's goals, target audience, and its influence on addressing underachievement, low participation, and retention rates among Pasifika learners. It delves into the Ng’a Turu framework, which guides teachers and learners. The analysis highlights the importance of early childhood education in shaping a person's development and the impact of the Tapasa Policy in improving education standards for Pacific learners. The report also discusses the influence of low participation and retention on the overall success of the policy, emphasizing the need for strategies to increase student engagement and achievement within the Pacific education system. The conclusion reinforces the importance of the PEP and Tapasa policy in fostering educational development among Pasifika learners, acknowledging the challenges of underachievement and low participation.

Running Head: THE TAPASA POLICY AND THE PACIFIC EDUCATION PLAN 1
The Tapasa Policy and its Effects on the Pacific Education Plan in Provision of Early
Childhood Education in Aotearoa, New Zealand
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THE TAPASA POLICY ON AND PACIFIC EDUCATION PLAN 2
The Tapasa Policy and its Effects on the Pacific Education Plan in Providing Early
Childhood Education in Aotearoa, New Zealand
Introduction
This paper looks into how the Pacific Education Plan was laid, its goals and purpose for
being put into work, and the groups the plan targeted. On the broader scope, it focuses on how
the Tapasa Policy impacted Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa, New Zealand and examined
the areas of underachievement, low participation, and retention.
Pacific Education Plan and the Tapasa Policy
The Pasifika Education Plan (PEP) was a program launched by the Ministry of Education
in New Zealand to enable Pasifika learners to enhance their participation and achievements by
providing them with an option for primary education (Peters, 2010). The plan encompasses the
joint working between the Pasifika Communities, the New Zealand Ministry of Education
parents and families to ensure they raise activities and events required to lift the learner's
achievements in various fields. Education is said to affect a wide range of things, including the
bases of social divisions. (Leaupepe & Sauni, 2014). One crucial importance of transformative
learning is that it also can influence existing social divisions by mobility. The Pacific education
plan realized an improved number of schools going children, due to the provision of early
childhood education, more schooling implies more development. The current state of the
education system in the country is pleasant and is expected to rise in the coming ages (Chu,
Glasgow, Rimoni, Hadis, Meyer 2013). This targets, lower elementary children of New Zealand
in their early learning and development so that they absorb much about culture and identity.
Tapasa policy was aimed at guiding teachers and Pacific learners to support them and
motivate them in the quest to reach their destinations and achieve their dreams. The plan, which

THE TAPASA POLICY ON AND PACIFIC EDUCATION PLAN 3
is preferably a resource, responds in line with the necessity to improve excellent teaching skills
and strong leadership for the benefit of Pacific learners (Reynolds, 2019). The most vital literacy
part of a person is early childhood education since it impacts how the life of that person
develops, enabling them to achieve their full potential in life. The reason why it is essential is
that it forms the vital skill and foundational layout in a person's development. Therefore, this
policy had a significant influence on the provision of education on the Pacific learners who are
children of lower elementary levels starting after pre-school.
Underachievement and Tapasa influence
Underachievement is a negative mark on an education system of a nation. It is marked by
the learners not being able to produce results after being given tests by the teachers or, not being
able to apply the skills they learn in their fields of participation. (Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh,
Teddy, 2009). This type of results affects a nation as there is no security of knowledge in the
country. It also means that the future of such a Nation will be compromised to the level that the
particular may not rise to well established industrial society and worse still, may have to hire
expatriates from other nations to help them run their own country which is just like a form of
colonization. Of the akonga that underachieve in the introduced formal education system, Maori
and the Pasifika are the higher contributors by percentage in New Zealand. In Aotearoa, it was
found that Maori and Pasifika achievements compared to those other communities in Aotearoa
are very low (Fletcher, Parkhill & Harris, 2011) The ultimate aim of a government is to see its
people getting educated and performing as per the requirements of that education system laid out
for them. Underachievement influences the Tapasa policy, which aimed at improving
achievement itself. With underperformance in the Pacific education system, meant that more
pacific learners could give up on the education rendering the Tapasa policy non-functional.

THE TAPASA POLICY ON AND PACIFIC EDUCATION PLAN 4
Low participation and Tapasa influence
The effect of low participation on the government's education systems affects the overall
plan of the provision of education to the citizens. It is how few people join the education
systems; thus, when a small percentage of the total population joins the education systems of a
country. Low participation, on the other hand, can be attributed to how the Pacific learners and
the Pasifika Communities received the education interventions laid out for them. The main aim
of the changing education systems is the necessity to increase the number of participants in the
education systems and at the same time, extends their make-up far beyond the elite patterns. One
of the reasons why there was low participation is that there were unskilled and semi-skilled job
opportunities in New Zealand. It led to the people seeing no need to go for education and training
to improve the status of society. Low participation greatly influenced the Tapasa policy in that
although it was received well, few people joined the education systems laid out by the Tapasa.
The overall impact is that still, the goal of the Tapasa was not reachable due to the challenge it
faced with low participation from the Pasifika Communities identified in Aotearoa, New
Zealand.
Retention and Tapasa influence
Joining school is one thing but being retained in school is a different kettle of fish
altogether. The ability to stay in school till completion is affected by a wide range of issues
students face in school and from their families back at home. Possibly some students may have
left school due to lack of resources to fund their education or further it from one stage to another.
Others may have been affected by the peer groups and discouragements. Others felt that due to
the availability of unskilled and semiskilled jobs, they could probably quit school before
completion and join the workforce to earn themselves and their families a fortune. However, this

THE TAPASA POLICY ON AND PACIFIC EDUCATION PLAN 5
negatively contributed to the grown of the New Zealand education systems and was a threat in
the overall future if the society since there would be no intelligent and influential minds in the
future. The New Zealand government wanted to improve the retention capacity and rates of the
education systems, especially in Aotearoa region for the Pasifika and Maori people. The
introduction and provision of the Tapasa policy, a resource to guide teachers and learners
towards achieving their ultimate goals was aimed at providing the learners with the ability to
remain in school till completion (Toumu’a & Laban, 2014) However, the purpose of the Tapasa
was again influenced by the failure of the education systems to retain students at school. Students
leaving school to join the workforce or idling was a blow on the Tapasa policy whose goal was
to boost learning activities in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Ng’a Turu
In the Tapasa policy framework, a Ng’a Turu is a set of behaviors and understanding
taken from different distinct stages of the learning process. Ng’a Turu choice, Turu 1: Identities,
languages, and cultures. The turu is about how the teacher identifies and understands the
languages and cultures of their learners. My center philosophy in this context acknowledges
language as the biggest gift to children, thus; one of the richest gifts, children can get is the one
about their ethnic language. From it, they are able to draw much in relation to their people
heritage, be unique, noticeable and proud of it in front of fellow people and share their
understanding with different cultures. The turu can be included in the center philosophy through
ensuring that first language is included in the school curriculum to form a base of learning and
understanding the culture of their people. This makes them grow strong with the ability to
acknowledge their culture and that of others towards enhancing socialization and cohesion
among people of different cultures. By allowing the teachers to be able to identify the language

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of the learners and their likes, they will be able to take advantage of the knowledge in improving
the methodology of teaching the students and gaining the ultimate goal of improving the
education standards in New Zealand. Young children will grow with a sense of unity, interaction
and cohesion regardless of the different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. This boosts
international coexistence among people.
Philosophy strengthening
In strengthening the center philosophy, the stakeholders of the school curriculum need to
include a facet of first language learning somewhere along the course in New Zealand. The
schools need to have a culture, language and identity week where different cultures will be
acknowledged and accepted (Cooper & Hedges, 2014). Children will learn at early ages, more
about the cultural heritage of their people. Through this learner participation will increase during
learning. First language will improve retention about what they are taught. This will boost the
overall achievement during assessment and hence academic success. Families and communities
also need to have a way of celebrating culture and identity so that the children can see its
importance in school and outside.
Conclusion
From the analysis, it is clear that the PEP realized an improved number of school going
children, due to the provision of early childhood education, more schooling implies more
development. Tapasa policy was aimed at guiding teachers and Pacific learners to support them
and motivate them in the quest to reach their destinations and achieve their dreams.
Underachievement influences the Tapasa policy, which aimed at improving achievement itself.
One of the reasons why there was low participation is that there were unskilled and semi-skilled
job opportunities in New Zealand.

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