A Waitangi Tribunal report says 3000 kohanga reo infants and toddlers face a crisis because their buildings are not up to code, and 172 language nests across the country could close.
The warning comes in Matua Rautia, the report on the Kohanga Reo National Trust claim which was heard under urgency earlier this year. It alleged wide-ranging breaches of the Treaty and in particular the trust said the Crown had effectively assimilated the kohanga reo movement into its early childhood education regime.
The trust had wanted a complete cut from the Education Ministry.
But tribunal members, led by presiding officer Deputy Chief Judge Caren Fox, did not call for that outright.
The report found the Crown's early childhood education system had failed to adequately sustain the specific needs of kohanga reo as an environment for language transmission and whanau development.
These failures constituted breaches of the Treaty principles of partnership and equity.
It recommended the Crown urgently consider a "more appropriate regulatory and licensing framework" specific to kohanga, without explaining what that might look like.
It identified funding as a serious problem, because the institutions cannot access the same funding rates as teacher-led centres.
The Maori Development Ministry Te Puni Kokiri identified 172 kohanga reo, one third of the total, may not meet a November 2014 deadline to comply with new regulations. The cohort may have to shut their doors, possibly affecting 3000 children.
"In our view, the Crown must act to avoid the looming disaster in the ability of kohanga reo to function. " The report said: "... the question arises as to whether te reo will survive in many communities, and whether current efforts are sufficient ... , or whether it is on the brink of a rapid and irreversible decline.""Only when the numbers of students leaving the education system bilingual and biliterate reaches a level necessary for the survival of the reo will the Crown have met its duty to actively protect te reo."
Trust lawyer Mai Chen said she was delighted with the report. There was still hope the trust could become an independently-funded body separate from the ministry, she said.
