Page 683 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009
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improvement in the way we assist our communities to preserve their linguistic and cultural heritage.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (5.38): I would like to thank Ms Porter for bringing this issue to the attention of the Assembly. Language education provides necessary skills for the 21st century, promotes understanding of ourselves and others, opens the mind and our imagination and improves literacy, cultural understanding and our ability to communicate.
The ACT Greens are committed to encouraging and supporting culturally and linguistically diverse communities. During this sitting week we have put questions on notice to the minister for education regarding the schools languages program. Past ACT Greens members, most recently Dr Foskey, have been vocal in calling for increased commitment to comprehensive and dynamic language education.
I would like to acknowledge that the ACT government is taking steps towards improving language education, primarily through the draft multicultural strategy 2009-2012 and increasing funds to the grants programs, which are welcome.
Having had preliminary discussions with some of the relevant community groups, such as the University of Canberra and the Canberra Multicultural Community Forum, my office and Ms Bresnan’s office have been advised that discussions between the government and the community continue. That said, I have also been advised that there are still some things that could be improved.
The government’s position on the language policy and the multicultural strategy, while encouraging, does not facilitate coordination of current language education programs within the ACT. Representatives from the community have informed me that, with greater synchronisation, the resources we currently have in ACT schools and in the community could be better utilised to offer more comprehensive and engaging language education programs.
Greater cooperation and recognition between ACT schools and the community-based, ethnic, Saturday-type schools could result in the mutual recognition of course programs and lessen the pressure on the ACT school system. Greater coordination would also serve the departments of education, Disability, Housing and Community Services and Territory and Municipal Services, as they have key roles to play in this matter and a centralised, coordinating instrument would be beneficial to ensure that programs are implemented and monitored.
I would like to reiterate past Greens MLAs’ calls for a stronger commitment to interactive and comprehensive language teaching. Our language teachers need the flexibility and conditions to develop their skills and to indulge their students. Australia, including the ACT, has a decreasing number of students studying languages; yet it is well established that being able to speak two languages has positive effects on an individual’s overall learning ability and their capacity to gain additional language skills in the future. More generally, both the commonwealth and the ACT government have acknowledged that possessing the ability to speak more than one language is an invaluable skill for the 21st century; yet our multilingual
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