languages next on the National Curriculum Board's Agenda

The Age, 24 March 2008; The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 March 2008

New government research has found that students believe learning a language other than English during their senior secondary years would adversely affect their university entry scores. They also believe that knowing another language
is not relevant to their future.

The research has found that only 13 per cent of Year 12 students are studying a language other than English, compared
to 40 per cent of Year 12 students in the 1960s.

In a bid to significantly increase the number of students studying and graduating from secondary school with a second language, the Federal Government plans to initiate talks with state and territory education ministers, as well as independent and Catholic school leaders, about implementing a ‘nationally consistent language curriculum’.

The Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard, believes that students’ ‘lack of interest’ in learning a foreign language could make young Australians less competitive in the international market. She told The Age that ‘the reports are basically saying that the study of languages other than English is the weakest part of the key learning areas in Australian schools, and they point to the fact that more than 85% of students who graduate from high school today do so without a language other than English’.

Ms Gillard has indicated that she would ask the National Curriculum Board, which is currently working on designing nationally consistent curricula for English, maths, science and history, to also develop a standardised language curriculum for all Australian schools.

‘We want young Australians to be coming out of school with the tools that they need to work in that modern environment, and increasingly that environment will require them to be able to converse with people in our region in their own language,’ Ms Gillard said.

 

 

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