Education Ministry

The report, He Whakaaro, says nearly 15 percent of Māori students and 12 percent of Pasifika students said teachers were unfair to them because of their ethnicity in the previous year, but only 3 percent complained of bullying related to their ethnicity.

The figures were based on new analysis of data gathered in the Youth 2000 University of Auckland survey of 8500 teenagers in 2012.

The Māori Dictionary app was launched last week by the Prime Minister, Henry Puna, who recalled a time when he would have been caned for speaking the native tongue at school.

But he says the language is now seeing a resurgence, with increased efforts to preserve Cook Islands Māori and get more people speaking the language.

The project was led by Anonga Tisam, which was awarded a grant to develop a database of Māori words two years ago.