The Independent Education Union of Australia strongly supports the Go8 policy paper “Languages in Crisis” which describes the decline in teaching foreign languages as critical.
“This government’s record in relation to language education is dreadful. It scrapped the funding for the national Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia during its watch. The number of languages available to learn in schools has fallen from 66% to 29% and the number of students studying a foreign language in year 12 has fallen correspondingly.”
“At a time when the strongest message from all quarters is that we must be more outward looking in a rapidly globalising economy, our government closes off the opportunities to learn and understand the languages and cultures of other countries, she said.
“What strikes most Australians who travel or who meet travellers is how many people from other countries can speak English – and how few Australians can speak another language”, said Ms Rolley.
“This is to our detriment,” she said.
“Perhaps our leaders should think about how many leaders of other governments can speak English fluently – most from European countries, most from our own region, including Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, India and so on. How many of our leaders can speak any one of these – very few, if any.”
“This government has expectations that our Indigenous children must learn English – although do little to provide those in remote communities without the resources to do so.
“What is remarkable is that so many Aboriginal people speak English, not as their first language but sometimes as their second or third language – despite what has generally been their abject poverty stricken circumstances, she said.
In all areas of language education, this government fails. There is no doubt that learning a language also has benefits for the student literacy levels.
The IEU supports the call from the Go8 for government to lift its game in relation to languages education. Again they have presided over ten years of deficit responsibility in this important area of learning.
Contact details
Lynne Rolley
Federal Secretary
Ph: 03 9254 1830
Fax: 03 9254 1835
ieu@ieu.org.au