The effort to restore the health of Hawaiian as a living language has been the project of several decades. Unfortunately, the recent halt of a program at a school in a fast-growing part of Oahu has signaled just how much more work remains to be done.
The new school year started Monday, but families hoping that children could attend Hawaiian language immersion classes at Kapolei Middle School were told just weeks ago that the campus had suspended its Ka Papahana Kaiapuni immersion program, in which students are taught all subjects in the Hawaiian language.
The reason is a known problem: the shortage of teachers. Specifically, Kapolei Middle had two positions to fill but failed to do so. Incoming eighth-graders had the option to remain enrolled at Kapolei and either study in English or in Hawaiian through a distance- learning platform; or they could transfer to Anuenue School if space is available.
Both alternatives are discouraging, especially considering that the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands is building Ka‘uluokaha‘i, a major housing project for Native Hawaiians, in East Kapolei. There is sure to be a continuing demand for immersion instruction in the West Oahu communities, and the development of the teacher workforce must accelerate to meet it.
The state Department of Education, as well as University of Hawaii-based teacher-training programs, have been aware of this problem for some time. Responding to growing demand, in January, the application process for students seeking priority placement in Kaiapuni was centralized for elementary-level instruction.
And in June, the DOE announced an expansion of Kaiapuni, with 17 additional students added to the distance-learning program due to limited in-person capacity on Hawaii island.
But clearly, distance learning is not ideal, especially for children and youth whose in-person socializing is an integral part of gaining their education through Hawaiian language. The pipeline for training qualified teachers for this role must be improved.
Agencies are working on it, ostensibly. Bound up in the current contract for the Hawaii State Teachers Association is an annual salary differential of $8,000 to support the recruitment and retention of Hawaiian language educators, a provision approved by the state Board of Education in December 2019.
And in April 2024, the Office of Hawaiian Education within the DOE began work on the Kaiapuni Education Strategic Plan 2025-2029. A key goal within that document is identified as capacity development, to “nurture conditions that attract, retain and elevate the value and enhance the quality of our personnel.”
But staying ahead of the growth has been a challenge. The acute shortage of teachers for immersion instruction on the Big Island was addressed with a new elementary program there, as well as additional grade levels in existing programs statewide.
And still the problem persists, erupting this year in the all-too-sudden closure of the Kapolei program, a failure that should have been anticipated earlier.
In addition to providing the bump in pay for teachers, the education agencies need to explore other reasons that the system is not yielding a sufficient supply of teachers. There should be ways to encourage more students who are fluent in Hawaiian to enter the teacher-training track. One prime opportunity, for example, would seem to be stronger partnerships with teacher-training programs at the University of Hawaii.
Without a doubt, the Hawaiian language was dealt its most grievous blow in 1896, when authorities banned its use in schools. Since then, many resources have gone toward saving it. Hawaiian is far too essential to the native culture of the islands to weaken that mission now.