Recently there was media coverage from Sydney Morning Herald on a public school which is actively participating in the pilot government-funded bilingual program, initiated with four public schools on a trial basis until it proves to be plausible for other schools across the state to implement such program. At Campsie public school, there’s no single child who can speak English only. It was easier to implement the bilingual education plan at this school than other schools in other Sydney suburban areas due to the nature of this school which boasts 39 different languages among its 720 students in arguably one of the most multicultural suburbs across Australia, where the principal of the school sees the ‘natural fit’ of the program to the school. The researchers from the University of Sydney studying the bilingual program’s progress overall found the implementation of the program quite successful in a way that students participating in the language program have improved in other areas of the curriculum according to the internal school data from Campsie, backing up the school principal’s view that to be well educated, you should have some exposure to language, and also it can promote cultural harmony which is important in multicultural societies like Australia. There’s a small portion of negative views though, mainly concerned with the clash with the upcoming NAPLAN test where some teachers argue that languages classes take away the time to prepare for NAPLAN test, according to one of the researchers, Dr. Ruth Fielding. But at the same time she argues, because it’s an immersion program where the language classes are incorporated into small daily portions of regular classes such as English or Geography, it does not take time away from the content.
The need for this kind program was also clearly reflected in a federal government initiative, The Asian Century White Paper, by the former Julia Gillard government which aims at integrating Australia into Asia-Pacific further with bearing in mind of ever increasing importance of interrelation to Asian region not just economically but also culturally and politically as a result of diversification of issues in domestic, international and intersection of both domains , arising from, at least in part, the stance Australia takes towards promoting multiculturalism in this era of market based globalization in which Australia is one of the favorite destinations on the globe for working holiday makers, overseas students and migrants. But then historically, whenever economy is on downturn, Asian migrants tend to be blamed to be scapegoats, with one of good examples being Pauline Hanson’s speech during her election campaign more than a decade ago and even nowadays degree of Asian-friendliness in immigration policy is susceptible to change according to how general public perceive the economic situation in Australia. This is the context where the level of social cohesion is questionable and some of the recent racial attacks on Asian overseas students/working holiday makers reflect such circumstance, possibly ruining Australia’s image towards Asian countries, especially those which ‘export’ their people more predominantly than others and this will affect the relationship with them diplomatically and subsequently, economically. So essentially the initiative should be about strengthening the relationship with Asian countries by educating students to be more aware of Asian culture through language learning and obviously this cannot be done overnight. This particular state of NSW initiative firstly started back in 2010 and it still hasn’t been widespread across all schools in the state yet, but this successful example of implementing the program should be able to represent what foreseeable benefits are, how it can be incorporated into existing schools’ curriculums.
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