Aotearoa New Zealand prides itself on being a multilingual and multicultural society. Yet, when it comes to language education, our public schools offer only a narrow set of options. With the rapid growth of the Indian community and Hindi now the fourth most spoken language in the country, the question arises: should Hindi be taught in our schools?
The answer depends on what we believe language education is for.
For the 292,000 New Zealanders of Indian heritage - our third-largest ethnic community - having Hindi in schools would be a meaningful recognition of identity. Research shows that learning heritage languages strengthens cultural pride and family connections. For many Kiwi-Indian families, ensuring that their children can speak, read, and write Hindi would help preserve intergenerational ties and maintain their cultural heritage in Aotearoa.
A demographic reality is that while European New Zealanders are declining proportionally, Indian, Māori, and Pacific populations are growing. A national curriculum that ignores the linguistic heritage of nearly 300,000 citizens risks looking outdated and unrepresentative. Allowing Hindi as an option would send an important signal of inclusion.
Cognitively, multilingual education has proven benefits. Countries like Singapore have successfully embedded multiple community languages into their curriculum, strengthening both social cohesion and students’ learning outcomes. Offering Hindi, alongside te reo Māori and other migrant languages, would reflect the multicultural reality of Aotearoa.
Yet, curriculum overload is a real issue, especially in the season of NCEA changes. Schools already struggle to deliver core subjects effectively, as declining literacy and numeracy rates show. Adding another subject requires trained teachers, materials, and assessment frameworks - resources we do not currently have.
Unlike te reo Māori or Samoan, Hindi is not the sole language representative of the Kiwi-Indian community. Punjabi has seen explosive growth, Gujarati remains common, and Tamil and Urdu are widely used too. Focusing on Hindi risks alienating other sub-communities who may feel their heritage languages have been overlooked.
The primary question remains: what is the real purpose of offering Hindi? If the argument is economic, it does not hold. For trade with India, English is more than sufficient. It is one of India’s official languages – Hindi being the other one, and the primary medium of higher education and business. In practical terms, no New Zealand exporter will find Hindi essential for trading purposes.
That leaves cultural representation as the main rationale. But if the goal is to honour Indian culture within Aotearoa, one could argue that Sanskrit - the classical root of most Indian languages and the language of India’s ancient philosophy, mathematics, and literature - would carry greater symbolic weight than modern Hindi. In fact, Sanskrit is already offered as a language option at Ficino School in Auckland.
Ultimately, priorities must be questioned. New Zealand has three official languages: English, tereo Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language. How many secondary schools actually offer te reoMāori as a compulsory option? How many make NZSL widely available? Before rushing to introduce migrant languages, surely we should strengthen access to our own official languages.
A pragmatic solution may lie in the middle. It is reasonable - and culturally respectful - to make Hindi available as an optional subject in certain schools, particularly in regions with strong Indian populations. This would ensure that those who wish to connect with their heritage have the opportunity, without overwhelming the entire system.
Community-school partnerships, after-school programmes, and digital learning resources could all provide practical pathways to begin. At the same time, government must remain focused on its commitments to revitalising te reo Māori and expanding New Zealand Sign Language, while also ensuring that literacy and numeracy recover from decades of decline.
Languages are more than tools for communication; they are carriers of identity, culture, and belonging. Offering Hindi in New Zealand schools would not transform our trade relationship with India, but it would make a difference for young Kiwi-Indians who want to hold onto their heritage. The real question is not whether Hindi deserves a place, but whether our education system has the capacity to add it while still meeting its most fundamental obligations.
In the end, Hindi in schools should be seen not as a necessity, but as a cultural option - one that affirms the diversity of modern Aotearoa, provided it does not come at the expense of our commitment to te reo Māori, NZSL, and the core skills every child needs.
Dr Paula Ray has worked in New Zealand’s secondary and tertiary sectors since 2010 and holds a PhD in digital media communication from the University of Auckland. She is currently the Academic Director at ICL Graduate Business School.