Context behind the AEF responses to national curriculum framing papers

The ‘Big Picture’

• Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said that he “wants Australia to become the most Asia-literate country in the Western world.” He states the core challenge for Australia is how we best prepare ourselves for the Asian Century – to maximize the opportunities, minimize the threats and make our own active contribution to making the Asian Century peaceful, prosperous and sustainable for us all.[1]
• Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told the 2008 AEF National Forum that, “It is impossible to conceive of a future Australian education system that does not take the study of Asia seriously.”[2]
• Our political leaders describe ‘Asia literacy’ as a national education priority and a learning opportunity to which all young Australians should have access.
• A focus on ‘Asia literacy’ in schools is inextricably linked to the changed world Australia finds itself in with India, China and other Asian nations strengthening their impact on the world in unprecedented ways:
  • China and India set to be the world’s top economies by 2040 when five year olds starting school in Australia today will be at the peak of their working lives.
  • Pressing global issues now confronting Australians including climate change, food supply, pandemics, people movement and security, require citizens with the skills to work closely with our geographic neighbours to help resolve these issues.
  • The proportion of Australians from Asian backgrounds is 10 percent and rising. The 2006 Census indicated that 800,000 Australians speak an Asian language at home; Buddhism is Australia’s fastest growing religion; India provides our third largest source of migrants and over 20 percent of our university students are Asian.
• We now find ourselves at a crucial moment in the evolution of Australian school curriculum, which has remained firmly Euro-centric with little attention paid to equipping new teachers with skills, knowledge and understandings of Asia. Consequently, half of our schools teach little or nothing about Asia, less than a quarter of students have a chance to learn an Asian language and fewer than 6% study an Asian language at Year 12.
• A unique opportunity now presents to address the long-standing underemphasizing of ‘Asia literacy’ as a vital and non-negotiable component of an Australian national curriculum.