Tumuaki and principals are invited to connect their SMS to Te Rito to ensure learner information travels with them when they change schools.
It will be several years before all kura and schools are onboarded and can use Te Rito but this critical step will secure learner information before end-of-year transitions.
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Every tamaiti and child is different. The more we understand their strengths, aspirations and learning needs the better we can shape the support we provide, valuing and respecting the things that make them unique.
Our tamariki and children are our taonga - our treasure. The information held about them is also taonga and requires care and respect. It’s precious to our tamariki and children, to their whānau and families, and to the iwi and communities in which they live and learn.
Te Rito will make a positive difference to the wellbeing and achievement of ākonga and learners by securely storing and sharing information in a transparent and trusted way.
What we're planning for 2023-24
Since Te Rito was paused in 2021, we have addressed the technical barriers to the secure transfer of data from SMS into Te Rito, enabling the programme to be restarted safely. We are working closely with the Te Rito sector working groups, Ngā Rau Whakatupu Māori and Auraki, to plan and implement the restart.
We will focus on enabling data to follow ākonga and learners by connecting kura and schools to Te Rito. Our current plan is to upgrade existing users, then extend deployment on a targeted basis, starting with kura and schools in Te Tai Tokerau, Northland, in 2024.
In line with our kaupapa, sector engagement and co-design is at the forefront of all decision-making. We are working with Ngā Rau Whakatupu Māori and Auraki to co-design the restart, with the intention that implementing Te Rito in kura and schools will be led by the sector.
The groups are strongly committed to achieving the aims of Te Rito:
- to enable ākonga and learner data to follow them throughout their education journeys
- to protect ākonga and learner data from cyber-attack and privacy breaches.
Feedback is welcome and questions are encouraged. Please email them to terito@education.govt.nz.
Scope & Objectives
- Establish an independent Te Rito Data Kaitiakitanga Group to oversee the access and use of information held in Te Rito, and determine who can use learner data, for what purpose and under what conditions. This will include making recommendations on requests for aggregated data in Te Rito, such as from researchers, the Ministry of Education, or other education agencies.
- Connect early learning providers, kura and schools that were part of the early-stage roll-out to the upgraded Te Rito platform from term 4. (Note that apart from the participants in the early-stage rollouts, early learning providers are out of scope for the Te Rito restart.)
- Extend deployment to kura and schools beginning with members of Ngā Rau Whakatupu who wish to opt-in, followed by deploying Te Rito into Whangārei and then Te Tai Tokerau kura and schools from term 1, 2024
- Connect Ko Taku Reo – Deaf Education NZ to trial learner access for specialist, provision and outreach schools
- Continue to upgrade security, connect SMS and build data resilience.
The name Te Rito represents the baby flax at the heart of the harakeke.
Te Rito has the tamaiti and child, and their whānau and family, at its heart. They are at the centre of everything we do.
We are guided in the design and implementation of Te Rito by a whakatauākī we have been gifted permission to use:
Me tiaki te mana o te tamaiti me tōna whānau
Protect and uphold the mana of the child and their whānau
