National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools
This is a national policy statement approved by the MCEETYA in 2005. The Statement provides a rationale for embedding a focus on Asia and it broadly identifies the knowledge, understandings, values and skills required to engage with Asia in the context of existing policies and practices in teaching and learning.
Index
- Educating Australians for the twenty-first century
- Purpose of this statement
- Australia and Asia
- Defining Asia
- An Asia-engaged young Australian
- Education: Engaging Young Australians with Asia
- 1 Teaching and learning
- 2 Curriculum resources
- 3 Professional learning
- 4 Engaging parents and the community
- 5 Teacher education
- 6 Quality assurance
- 7 Support for studies of Asia and Australia
- References
Current context
‘Australia's future will also depend on our ability to engage constructively and effectively with the countries of the Asia Pacific. That is why I am committed to making Australia the most Asia-literate country in the collective West. By investing in Asian languages and cultural education in Australia's schools, my vision is for the next generation of Australians – businessmen and women, economists, accountants, lawyers, architects, artists, film-makers and performers – to develop language skills which open their region to them. This is part of our long-term vision for a fully regionally engaged Australian nation in this Asia-Pacific century that now unfolds before us.’
The Honourable Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister of Australia,
Building on ASEAN's Success – Towards an Asia Pacific Community,
12 August 2008
The National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools, which was approved by Australian Ministers of Education in 2005, can be found here. This web version of the statement has been updated in response to the heightened focus on Asia literacy in the current Australian environment. Some terminology has been updated and the web version references The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. The Melbourne Declaration, approved by Ministers of Education in 2008, makes explicit the need for Asia literacy in the Preamble.
‘India, China and other Asian nations are growing and their influence on the world is increasing. Australians need to become ‘Asia literate’, engaging and building strong relationships with Asia.’[1]
In the four years since endorsement of the National Statement, support for an Asia literate education community has strengthened considerably. The Australian Government has committed funding of $62.4 million over four years for the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP). Peak education stakeholders have formed Australia’s Asia Literacy Alliance and endorsed a Call to Action outlining a ten-point strategy for progress. The Business Alliance for Asia Literacy has been convened. The AEF has developed a definition of Asia literacy and descriptions of what it means to be Asia-literate in the Arts, English and Humanities classrooms have been provided through the Asia Scope and Sequence documents.
The dynamic context that we are in as educators needs to be considered in exploring the scope and impact of the National Statement for Engaging Young Australians with Asia in Australian Schools.
