Chinese Mandarin Learner: What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...

13 August 2012

What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...

Australian Education Minister Peter Garrett had this to say about Asian Languages during an television interview;
"...we don't have a driving culture in this country .....which is saying from a parental point of view we want our kids to be in these schools learning these Asian languages."
What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...
Highlights of the newspaper article include;

Rates of Asian Language study is in a "state of freefall and collapse".
The government spent $60 million to boost the uptake of Asian Languages

However, there has been a decline
This old chestnut was mentioned again....

5.8 % of year 12 students accross Australia are studying Asian Languages
Only 300 of these are of a non-Chinese background
Even fewer study Bahasa Indonesian

......and the solution is (drum role here).........our Ozzie Government has convened a working group of business and academic leaders to examin the issue...

They will consider making Chinese Mandarin part of the Australian National Curriculum (this means it would have an compulsory aspect)...this could be very unpopular with the following groups;