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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-14 Daily Xml
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SMOLICZ AWARD SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (15:21): On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the Smolicz Award Languages Scholarships and the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Minister for Education and the scholarship sponsors. The language teaching scholarship has been named the Smolicz Award, which not only acknowledges the work of a great academic but symbolises the message Professor Smolicz was advocating in his work; that is, the importance of languages for personal identity and the potential power of languages to connect human beings with communities in a variety of ways within and beyond our shores.

The lifetime and work of Professor Smolicz is a remarkable achievement. His CV and list of publications, international and national awards, the extensive research he undertook and the committees George was involved with are exhausting. His work and achievements had a huge impact on languages and multicultural education in schools in South Australia.

George's work in languages and multicultural education is well known and remains relevant to us here today in multicultural South Australia, but his work and academic influence reverberate beyond education to government policies and thinking, and his reputation stretches beyond our state and Australia into the international arena.

His research was not only in South Australia but extended to immigrant family groups and guest workers in Germany and involvement in the Social Science Research Council in the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Vietnam and the UNESCO base in Bangkok. His research compared the socioeducational experience of students from newly arrived immigrant families with second and third generation families in Australia.

The SA ministerial task force on multiculturalism in education produced a major report on languages education and became known as the Smolicz Report. It was a significant report in that it was a blueprint for government and educational planning for the future of languages and multicultural education in South Australia. The 1984 task force report enunciated two fundamental principles which remain relevant today; the first was the right of all students whose home language was not English to be able to study, somewhere in the school system, the language of their home.

The first stage of this came in 1976 when, through George's initiative, three ethnic community languages (Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish) were accepted by the then public examinations board as matriculation or year 12 subjects that could be counted towards university entrance. It was not long before other ethnic communities took advantage of this precedent to have their languages similarly recognised.

The other innovative structure recommended in the 1984 task force report was the establishment of the School of Languages as a specialist DECS school offering classes outside normal school hours and available to students from all school systems. This structure enabled viable classes to be formed in the smaller community languages, with students across the whole metropolitan area coming to weekly late afternoon classes in a central location.

One of the areas of which we are proud in languages education in South Australia is the progressive work in reviving and retrieving indigenous languages. George valued the progressive work in South Australia, especially in indigenous and community languages, and drew attention to the local work here in our state by bringing the first UNESCO joint conference between the Association of Asian Social Science and Research Council and the University of Adelaide. A special segment on indigenous languages was included on the program, which involved local notable people with expertise in indigenous languages.

The work on indigenous languages in Education South Australia has continued to grow and become recognised internationally, and there will be an opportunity through the Smolicz Award Scholarship Program for teachers to undertake teacher training through one of the universities, or learning an indigenous language through the School of Languages. One of the unique aspects of the Smolicz Award Language Teaching Scholarship Program is that it reflects the broad view held by George that learning another language benefits all learners and is important for economic growth, as well as social cohesion. Students enrolled at any university course and teachers who are already teaching, but not necessarily a language, can now undertake courses to train as language teachers.

Languages are also important for developing and strengthening personal and group identities. Teachers from ethnic schools, no matter which language background, can apply for a language methodology teacher training course at each of the three universities. This will provide a renewed and indirect way of training language teachers of not only the nine prescribed languages taught across all school sectors but also encourage ethnic and language groups to become language teachers. Students in the country are sometimes disadvantaged and, because of the shortage of language teachers available for country and remote areas, the Smolicz award provides unique opportunities also for country teachers to undertake online courses, either through the open access mode or by external study through some university courses.

This wide range of opportunities for the training of language teachers reflects George's vision that a truly multicultural Australia can be achieved only through the learning of a second language. The Smolicz Award Language Teaching Scholarship Program is unique to South Australia and will encourage a new wave of teachers to quickly meet the demands of language students in our schools in South Australia. I was very fortunate to have known George for approximately 30 years and was able to work with him.

I would like to congratulate MEC and everyone involved in the coordination and development of the Smolicz award and all the contributing parties who have unanimously supported the spirit of the Smolicz award—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Ms CICCARELLO: —and the commitment of funds over a five year period.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The house has been extraordinarily indulgent. Will the honourable member ensure that her notes are perfectly in order for Hansard, please. I do not want Hansard to try to use the tape. I call the member for Schubert, who, I hope, will speak at a leisurely pace.

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