The project, a level 3 automotive engineering course, was triggered by a former kura kaupapa student who raised concerns about English-based assessments for those who come from Māori-medium schools.
"Not only was the learner's first language an official language, but Ara [Institute of Canterbury] has a policy that it must consider opportunities for learners to be assessed in Māori if a competent translator and assessor can be found," academic quality assurance manager Julie McIlwraith said.
"When learners like this come with a variety of capabilities, we need to be able to meet them where they are at," she said.
Crafting a course like automotive engineering in te reo Māori involved several hurdles, including determining what needed to be translated.
Take a term like carburetor. Other languages may use a transliteration, which could have been possible in this case: motorcar is already motokā.
"Transliterations largely depend on the individual's understanding of the base language," Tūtengaehe said, which made it difficult in the context of this course.
Tūtengaehe said he initially liked this idea, but they came to rule it out because new words would have to be submitted to Te Taura Whiri, the Māori Language Commission.
"The terms would only exist in the documents that are provided here at Ara," Tūtengaehe said.
In the end, for terms like carburetor, he decided to stick with English.
"When learners complete their course of study here, they are essentially going into a work environment that doesn't understand any of those terms that we would've created, or terms that we would have transliterated," he said.
Ara Institute Te Tiriti partnerships director Te Marino Lenihan said there was a need for greater vocational education in te reo.
