The Pacific Island Community Tauranga Trust is advocating Pacific families focus on improving their children's grasp of the English language.

The trust's Pacific advocate, Danny Tolovae, says some Pacific children are struggling in school because their low ability in English is preventing them from understanding what is being taught.

He says government funding cuts are not helping.

'They have stopped printing Pacific language journals and have cut back on funding Aoga Amata School,” says Danny, of the Samoan language pre-school.

'My preference would be for every culture to learn basic English – Why? – because it's spoken widely around the globe.”

For families, however, which have immigrated to New Zealand, Danny says they need to make the effort to speak in English in the home as a part of their children's education.

He says relying on a Pacific language as a first language is not helping.

'It makes sense – that is why we have so many confused children who end up with no education and working in low paid jobs, or end up in mental health services with an identity crisis.

'Pacific parents must adapt to the New Zealand environment for them to learn and their children to grow and learn together.”
Danny says it's important for children to learn from kindergarten level to university level.

'But to do this, Pacific parents must learn a different behaviour towards their children by talking and communicating in the language they both understand.”