Victoria’s left-wing Labor government has promised the Indian community it will invest $43 million to teach students more foreign languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and Tamil.
Premier Ben Carroll told local Indian media that if re-elected later this month the government would provide expanded online classes at the Victorian School of Languages for all 44 modern languages taught as part of the Victorian Certificate of Education Curriculum.
The proposal would allow students across the state to study their language of choice, even if it was not offered by their local school, and Labor said it was looking at adding Sanskrit to the list of currently available languages.
Mr Carroll told The Australia Today that “Labor will always back our Indian community”, and that “every Victorian student should have the opportunity to study the language they want, no matter where they live”.
He said hundreds of foreign languages were spoken within Victoria’s immigrant communities, and that learning them in schools would help students stay connected to their cultures.
Minister for Education Gabrielle Williams said the expansion of online language classes would be of special benefit to students who live outside of metropolitan areas.
“By investing in the Victorian School of Languages, we’ll give more students better access to language education, particularly in regional and rural communities,” she said.
The Coalition is also promising to expand optional Hindu and Punjabi classes in schools, according to comments made by Liberal MP David Southwick to P24 News while speaking to Punjabi community leader Lucky Singh, and Jarrod Bingham, Liberal candidate for Melton.
“We believe that young people should be able to learn their languages,” Mr Southwick said.
“Especially when we have a growing Indian community, we should have Hindi and Punjabi as a language that they can choose to learn, so they can keep their values, their traditions, and cultures, whilst also being able to share and grow as part of being Australians.
Labor’s election promise comes after it pledged $11 million for Hindu and Sikh temples infrastructure and safety upgrades, along with $500,000 for kitchen upgrades at a Hindu temple in Melbourne’s north. The Coalition then promised the same temple $600,000.
The Coalition has also promised to spend $1.6 million on a Mandarin-language early learning centre in the Chinese immigrant-dominated suburb of Box Hill, and give the Box Hill Chinese New Year Festival $150,000 a year, the AFR reported.
Unbeknownst to most Victorians, both Mr Carroll and Opposition leader Jess Wilson have been targeting Chinese voters with posts written in Chinese on social media platform RedNote, as has Greens leader Ellen Sandell, and both major parties regularly speak exclusively to Indian media outlets.
Header image: Mr Carroll wearing a Sikh headscarf at a temple in Keysborough, Melbourne (PTC).
