There's belief not enough children are learning Te Reo to become a bilingual nation.

New data shows more than 28,000 students were taught the curriculum through Māori more than half the time last year, 71 percent up on 2000.

Māori language advocate Stacey Morrison says 250,000 kids still aren't taught anything in Te Reo - so there's work to do.

"I do think it's an 'everybody' thing, not just the teachers who are already there and fluent. One thing is valuing bilingualism, because there's a lot of benefits, and then we can go - okay, so how are we going to do that?"

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