SBS – Sylvia Varnham O’Regan
“The school’s principal, Silvia Onorati, said bilingual education gave the students an opportunity that others didn’t. “Generally speaking in education in New South Wales the time devoted to language is very little,” she said. “That give frustration to whoever wants to learn another language because you don’t see the positive outcomes.” “Our children don’t even realise they are learning another language because it’s a part of their everyday life.” Despite having one of the most multilingual societies in the world, rates of language uptake in Australian schools are low, with the number of Year 12 students studying a second language dropping in the past 50 years from 40 per cent to 12 per cent. Victoria is so far the only state to make language learning mandatory from prep to Year 10. In Western Australia less than half of public schools offer programs to learn a second language.”(more)