Language Programs

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:11): Thank you, sir. My question is directed to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Minister, can you update the house on the new development in language education in South Australia?

The SPEAKER: Minister.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (15:11): Thank you, sir. People who have spent any time with me around the education traps will know that language education is something that is very dear to my heart. I believe that it is good not only for students to learn other languages for their own sake but also, of course, for the very important internationalisation effort that we are going through not only to equip people with the capacity to operate overseas but also for the willingness and preparedness to know that that is something that we all need to be doing. So, language education is a very big part of that.

Now, there are a number of steps and pathways for that. The first one, the universal approach, is to make sure that every kid has access to learning a language. We are now in a position where nearly every primary school is offering a second language to students, and also there are, of course, the supplementary offerings through the School of Languages and Open Access College, where every language on the Australian curriculum is offered after hours to students, and also the very broad range of ethnic schools, where largely people newly arriving into Australia maintain their language and their culture for the next generations through offering the ethnic schools.

So there is a very broad brush to offer lots of opportunity for all students to have a chance to learn another language. We also know that we need to make sure that the people who want to follow languages further on are also encouraged to do so, and the three universities in South Australia recently went through a process of reviewing their bonus point scheme. They were concerned that the scheme was, in fact, resulting in the majority of students receiving some form of bonus point or other which, of course, cancels each other out.

They went through that process and determined that they would offer bonus points on very limited criteria, and one of those, I was pleased to see, was studying a second language. As someone who managed to struggle through two second languages in year 12, I can say that it is an extremely difficult subject to learn, and I am pleased to see that it is finally being recognised by the universities as an asset.

The third element of education in languages is one that we are just starting to really step into, which is the very intense immersive approach, and, as members will be aware, we have had two announcements recently on that. One is with French, which will not only be a bilingual school but also a bi-national school, where we will be offering from next year, in a public primary school to start with, a bilingual offering which is in the harmonised curriculum and which will enable the students who do go through to be recognised within French schools as well as in Australian schools.

We are able to do that courtesy of work that has been done in other states to harmonise the curriculum, fortunately. Then the more recent announcement—made with very great excitement—is that we have been able to identify the public school that will be the first bilingual Chinese/English school, and that will be William Light R-12 School. That's an incredibly courageous step that that school's taken. It is a bold step to choose to educate children in two languages. That means that not only are they learning Chinese as Chinese, but they are learning other curriculum through the language of Chinese. It will serve those children immensely well and, therefore, our state.

To have people who are so highly competent in a language that is spoken by over 1 billion people, that is spoken in a country that is our major trading partner, will serve us extremely well, and it is also making China pay attention to us. They are appreciative of our efforts not only to do business with them but to have a relationship with them, and intercultural relationships often start with the capacity to speak in the other person's language. We are operating on a number of fronts, and I believe that we are increasingly strengthening our internationalisation, our multiculturalism and our capacity to speak multiple languages.