RNZ education correspondentGael Woods

htmAsia in Australian schools The campaign inAustralia to increase the teaching of Asian studies inschools is no longer dependent on the need to explain whythe Asian region is so important, according to a recentRadio New Zealand documentary.RNZ education correspondentGael Woods researched the half hour Insight documentaryduring an Asia New Zealand Foundation-funded trip toAustralia in July this year.Her interviews indicated thatmost Rosetta Stone teachers and education leaders, and the public ingeneral, now accept the need to give priority to Asianstudies. This sea change in opinion is reflected by ajoint federal and state government initiative to sign off ona national policy statement entitled Engaging YoungAustralians with Asia earlier this year.Kathe Kirby, theexecutive director Australias Asia Education Foundation,told RNZ that her organisation was perceived as a fringelobby group in 1993 but Australians had since come a longway in recognising the importance of becoming better engagedwith the region. It was clear the business communityhad no question about it. Politically, with what hadtranspired in our own region in the last five years,politicians werent going to argue with it. Parentswerent going to argue with it and it was something thatwe needed then to frame in a way that was going to bringalong the education community, Ms Kirby said.In hervisits to several schools in South Australia and Victoria,Gael Woods was able to see how teachers were incorporatingAsian language, perspectives and cultural ideas in everydayteaching.But many educators did warn of the need toensure that teachers received the proper support andtraining for it to have a meaningful effect on students thatextended beyond the teaching offood andfestivals.For example a recent nationwide surveyundertaken by the Australian Secondary PrincipalsAssociation painted a disturbing picture with languageteaching in Australian schools probably at an all-timelow.The associations president, Andrew Blair, said 28percent of schools were shedding languages as part of theircurriculum because they could not guarantee that qualifiedstaff would continue to be available. Its reallyimportant that if you are going to embrace Asia that you doit holistically and you provide language programmes as muchas cultural immersion programmes, he told RNZ.CarilloGartner, a long serving patron of Asialink which is the AsiaNew Zealand Foundations Australian equivalent, said hewas alarmed by the Rosetta Stone Hindi V3 dropping number of high school anduniversity students learning Asian languages. He saidfederal government funding on language programmes had gonebackwards over the past ten years but the new nationalpolicy represented a fresh start.But Meg Gurry, a formerlecturer in Asian relations and a member of the AustralianAsian Studies Association, said studies of Asia and Asianlanguages needed a really bold government initiative, suchas a national languages institute. In five to ten weare going to have a very big crisis because even if therewas a new generation of young people that came through saidwe all want to learn about Asian countries and learn Asianlanguages, there will be fewer and fewer people to teachthem. Another concern expressed was how the policystatement could be Rosetta Stone Portuguese accommodated within an already crowdedcurriculum.But Sydney-based New Zealander Wayne Stevensonsaid the prosperity of future generations of Australians andNew Zealanders lay in the Asian region.