A new report by Asia-NZ Foundation – the leading authority engaged primarily in preparing New Zealand to thrive in Asia confidently, is backing what we know from our anecdotal experience – “to equip children with our language and culture.”
A new report released today by the Asia New Zealand Foundation finds maintaining cultural knowledge and language skills is a challenge for the growing number of under-five Asian children in New Zealand.
The report is calling upon NZ-Asian parents, and the government, to ensure that this “head start that these children enjoy in the cultural knowledge and language skills” is not lost in between somewhere before these children hit the actual workforce.
“Together with officials, providers, the community, the families, and other key stakeholders in the ECE sector, we need to come up with a deliberate and coordinated approach to ensure the language skills and cultural understanding of these children are not lost,” Simon Draper, Executive Director of Asia New Zealand Foundation said.
Probably now ethnic migrants could do more, and with an added degree of confidence, certitude and conviction, in equipping their next generation with the knowledge of the culture and language skills that they bring from their ancestral home.
A lot of ethnic migrants, including many within the Kiwi-Indian community, often find themselves at the crossroad between the intuitive desires of equipping their children in native language and culture versus letting them drift away from it.
The report Starting Strong: Nurturing the potential of Asian under-fives looks at the rapidly increasing Asian under-five population, their home environment, as well as the response of Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres to this changing demography.
Almost one in five children under five in New Zealand are now of Asian ethnicity.
Between 2001 and 2013, this demographic almost doubled from 18,378 to 35,898.
“It is important to recognise the benefits of having these children with diverse languages and cultures growing up in New Zealand, given Asia’s growing relevance [for NZ],” Mr Draper said.
While families of Asian ethnicity in New Zealand place great importance on their heritage culture and language, researchers say parents notice that as soon as children start school, English becomes the main language at home and their heritage language is used less.
NZ employers value workforce confident in engaging with Asia
“We hear from employers that New Zealand’s present and future workforce needs to be confident and competent in engaging with Asia and Asian peoples”, Mr Draper said.
“This report tells us children are entering our school system with a head start — bringing cultural knowledge and language skills that will be a real advantage when they enter the workforce 15-20 years from now,” Mr Draper further added.
However, the government is not doing enough to encourage that this head-start is lost before enriching New Zealand’s workforce.
NZ-Asian Parents need to do more
The report also highlights the apparent lack of self-belief among the NZ-Asian parents, who often consider it their responsibility to teach their child their culture and language and not that of Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres, and other social institutions playing an important role in the early education of children.
Researchers of this report also found that many Asian parents requested that English be spoken at ECE centres, even when bilingual teachers were available. Parents believe English fluency is essential for children making a smooth transition to school.