Page 5017 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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When you drill down further into the pathway plan you start to realise that whilst it might, generally speaking, meet the ACT curriculum policy for languages it is tokenistic at best. Take Gold Creek. Students at that school have a wide choice of languages but they seem to be nothing more than sampler lessons. You can study Korean in year 3, Japanese from year 2 to year 10, French in years 7 to 9, German in years 8 to 9, Indonesian from years 7 to 10 and Latin in year 8 and again in year 10. Perhaps you pop over and do a year of German or French in that missing year 9. I do not know.
Whilst we have a policy that requires all Canberra public schools to provide a language program we know they do not. And whilst we have a policy that apparently the ACT government “strongly supports the teaching and learning of languages in Canberra public schools” we know that these words do not translate into action.
When you look at what is required as a minimum it is, indeed, a minimum. For years 3 to 6 you study the language for a minimum 60 minutes and in years 7 to 8 it is a minimum of 150 minutes a week. The Institute of Foreign Languages estimates it would take a native English speaker about 2,500 hours to gain the same level of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. That means, for ACT students having 60 minutes a week Mandarin Chinese language, it would take 48 years. As much as the minister’s education plan is to enrol students from birth, I doubt any Canberran is going to want to stay in school for that long in the hope of gaining that level of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. Even when you take into account the additional high school lessons, we are looking at 25 years for proficiency in Mandarin Chinese at best.
Learning a language ought to be more than being able to count to 10, say hello, goodbye and order a beer in any given language. But at the minimal hours a week policy requirement our students will not be in a position and will never be in a position to take up career opportunities in foreign affairs, intelligence or other jobs in other countries.
This is talking only about the languages that are on offer. Let us take Arabic. Arabic is the third most spoken language in Australia. It is one of the languages translated in international conferences, just as Russian is, but not one ACT government school offers Arabic. We do have Arabic-speaking teachers and we know the ACT Community Language Schools Association offers Arabic at two locations, while community schools offer Russian at one non-government school. As early as 2004 there was concern expressed about the significant need for more language skills among our foreign affairs staff, including Arabic. Fourteen years later, still not a single government school teaches Arabic at any level.
What about Indian languages? We have Hindi offered at one preschool. Given the significance of India as a trading partner of Australia, and closer to home the dynamic, vibrant and active Indian community we have right here, why has this government not prioritised any Indian languages to be taught in our schools?
It is not just foreign languages that are missing out here. As home to one of the longest living cultures in the world, we must never forget our roots. It is wonderful to
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