Page 3860 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
with program development, supplementary start-up grants and professional training to support new languages teachers. Each year, a number of events are run across our primary schools, often in partnership with local embassies, to encourage student engagement with languages. These include events such as speaking competitions, the primary schools Japanese fun day and the French poetry competition.
Our policy now ensures that all secondary students will study a language for at least 150 minutes a week in years 7 and 8 from 2011. Students will also have the opportunity to continue their study in years 9 through to 12. In the ACT system, students will be able to begin a language in kindergarten and continue this same language all the way through to year 12. This is a unique feature of public education in the ACT.
Secondary schools use a range of strategies in language education. This includes offering students opportunities for overseas excursions or to participate in sister school exchanges. These provide students with the opportunity to spend up to three months overseas, often with a reciprocal visit the following year.
Language networks promote student exchange organisations, scholarships and competitions which offer opportunities for further intercountry study. As an initiative in 2010, over 400 ACT secondary students visited the ANU with their teachers or career advisers to explore the study and career options on offer for Asian languages. This is just one of many examples of the successful partnerships we have with the ANU in the area of language education.
Mr Speaker, you may have heard me speak from time to time on the importance of quality teaching. Put simply, beyond parental support, great teachers are the most important ingredient in a great education, and it applies to language teaching as it does to any other subject. To help ensure quality teaching in languages, regular professional development is offered to language teachers. Since 13 August, more than 180 teachers from ACT public schools, operating bilingual or immersion programs, attended professional learning workshops with Professor Tony Liddicoat of the University of South Australia. Next month, a guest lecturer from France will conduct a two-day workshop for 30 ACT teachers of French. This opportunity was developed in conjunction with the French embassy.
Only since 2007 has the ACT government enjoyed a good relationship with the commonwealth with regard to moving education forward. And I hope, for the benefit of all ACT students, this relationship continues to deliver a better education system. This includes the national Asian languages and studies in schools program. In 2010, the program’s strategic plan supported over 30 teachers to attend tertiary-level study. This included classes at the ANU for teachers of Japanese and Indonesian, and for teachers of Chinese Mandarin at the Australian Catholic University. The program also places 14 Indonesian language teachers’ assistants in ACT schools and supports senior secondary students to attend events at the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific. An information brochure was developed in 2010 for students and parents outlining the benefits of learning an Asian language and was distributed to all secondary schools in the territory.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video