Labor is set to announce an $8 million boost for 700 of Australia's community language schools, SBS News can reveal.
Under the plan, not-for-profit language schools would be able to apply for grants of up to $25,000 to upgrade resources, improve teacher training and expand their programs for pre-school age children.
Currently, most schools only run classes for those who have already started mainstream education.
Students learning Mandarin at Feng Hua Chinese School in Sydney. Source: SBS News
“I think we're a very proud multicultural nation and it is important to recognise that when we're forming our policies for government,” Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek told SBS News.
Up to six shadow ministers including Tony Burke and Jason Clare are expected to be on hand when Labor formally makes its announcement in the marginal western Sydney seat of Reid on Saturday.
“The simple fact is, the earlier you start to learn another language the more successful you'll be,” Ms Plibersek said.
“If we can get in early and ensure that our children are bilingual from an early age that is a gift to them that lasts a lifetime.”
Tanya Plibersek: "The earlier you start to learn another language the more successful you'll be". Source: SBS News
Around 100,000 students attend classes in more than 80 different languages at community language schools across Australia.
“Students should study language starting as early as possible,” Marisa Li, a teacher at Feng Hua Chinese School in Sydney told SBS News.
“As a second language learner, I know it's very hard when you start late and the students, if they come to school from four, five years old, they will learn Chinese very easily,” she said.
Students are eligible regardless of their linguistic or cultural background and classes are run outside of school hours, often on a Saturday.
“The work that is done by community language schools is done really on the smell of an oily rag,” Ms Plibersek said.
“We've got so many volunteers giving hours and hours of their time and the community language schools are really scraping together money to pay the air conditioning bills or to buy written resources for their students.”
Mother of two, Jessica Zhou, told SBS News she has enjoyed watching her two sons develop their proficiency in Mandarin after taking classes on weekends.
“They can communicate with their grandparents and us, and also they have made lots of different friends and they feel confident,” she said.
Her son Ethan Neoh agreed: “I can read more words in Chinese so I can read Chinese books without asking my mum and dad to help me.”
Labor’s plan to attract the migrant vote in the upcoming federal election will include translating information about its policy platform into other languages and putting out its message through in-language community newspapers.
“A lot of our relationships with other countries, trade relationships, in particular, benefit when we've got Australians who speak a second language," Ms Plibersek said.
“If we can work with nations in our region and around the world utilising bilingual Australians then we've got a head start.”
