Statistics included in today's release of social, environmental and economic sustainability indicators show that between 1996 and 2006 the proportion of Maori able to converse in te reo dropped from 25 percent to 23.7 percent - despite the number of Maori language speakers rising slightly to 157,113.
A 1978 survey by the Council for Educational Research described the language as endangered, with only 18 to 20 percent able to speak it fluently.
But the data compiled in the sustainability study released today showed 25 percent of the Maori population could hold an everyday conversation in Maori in 1996 and 2001 - but that part of the population had dropped by 2006.
Maori Language Commission chairman Erima Henare launched Maori Language Week this week by saying Maori need to be made the default language at home if it was to survive.
"There is a perception that with the increased presence of Maori language on television, on the radio, and in schools, that the language is secure.
"This is not the case," he said.
Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today that Maori in older age groups were more likely than younger people to be able to hold a conversation in the language.
"Although in 2006 there were larger numbers of Maori speakers in the younger age groups, the proportion of speakers in the older age groups was much higher."
SNZ national account manager Rachael Milicich said people had been asked to assess their own ability to hold an everyday conversation - which implied being capable of more than just the odd phrase.
Government Statistician Geoff Bascand said the 2006 Health of the Maori Language survey by Te Puni Kokiri showed that for Maori aged 15 years or older, 14 percent were able to speak Maori in a day-to-day conversation well, or very well, and 13 percent "fairly well".
The 14 percent group of proficient speakers means that of 565,000 Maori, only 18,000 are fluent.
The same survey's 2001 results showed adults with greater proficiency were more likely to have been exposed to Maori language in childhood.
Between 1992 and 2008 the number of kura kaupapa - schools where Maori language, culture, and values predominate -- and kura teina, schools making the transition to that role - increased from 13 to 72. Between 1997 and 2008, the number of their students increased by 55 percent, from 3926 to 6104.
The number of children aged up to six years attending kohanga reo or "language nests" jumped from 10,108 in 1990 to a peak of 14,514 in 1993, and since then has dropped away to 9165 in 2008.
Only 0.7 percent of non-Maori are able to hold an everyday conversation in the language.
NZPA
source: newshub archive
