Less than 10% of the country's 480 kōhanga reo are expected to benefit from a $12 million boost allocated in last month's Budget.
The funding over four years would add to an annual baseline of $5 million for property maintenance and repairs but would fall well short of what was needed, the head of the nationwide te reo Māori nests said.
"It was not the funding we applied for," said Kōhanga Reo National Trust Tumu Whakarae Angus Hartley.
"We had a work programme in place with the expectation that we would try to receive the full amount. Obviously not, and now as the national body, we have to manage expectations with whānau."
He wouldn't disclose the original funding bid to 1News, but said it was "significantly more".
"We had expected to cover at least 50 kōhanga reo over a period of three years based on that full amount," he said.
"Most kōhanga will need some state of repair. Now, it's about how much resource we can find for them."
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the funding announced in the Budget was just a start.
"We'll continue to work really closely with kōhanga reo to understand the property maintenance issue, where those lie," she said.
"This was a big injection. It's not just the additional $3 million. It's the fact that it is ongoing."
She said the Government was committed to the revitalisation of te reo Māori.
"It's honouring the Treaty, as well, to make sure there are children who are able to choose to grow up in centres like this with their reo."
Stanford today visited Te Kōhanga Reo o Te Rahuitanga in Papakura. But hanging over her visit was an urgent hearing in the Waitangi Tribunal where claimants were arguing the Government was doing irreversible harm to the Māori language by requiring public service departments to communicate primarily in English.
"I think we've been very clear, both languages should sit side by side," she said.
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