Schoolchildren need to learn second language says study

By HELEN TUNNAH AND STUART DYE

All New Zealand children should be able to learn a second language at school, says a major study.

Prime Minister Helen Clark backs the idea, although it is not Government policy and curriculum changes would not start before 2006.

The Ministry of Education's three-year study, which reviewed subjects taught for the past decade and the way they were taught, says schools should be required to offer languages other than English from years seven (form one) to 10 - students aged 10-13.

But it says second languages should not be mandatory.

Helen Clark, who has dabbled in Spanish, French, Latin, German and Swedish, endorsed the idea, saying children from continental Europe often picked up several languages during school years.

"Language has been very much the poor relation in the school curriculum."

She said some languages, such as Korean, Mandarin and Indonesian, could be significant in the region.

"You can imagine that something like that would have quite considerable resource implications because we've never done it. You'd be looking at training a whole new field of language teachers."

The report quotes Australian and British studies questioning the low priority given to learning languages here.

Those studies also cite a failure to meet the needs of diverse social and religious backgrounds.

The stocktake highlights the continued poor performance of Maori and Pacific students, those from lower-decile schools and those who speak English as a second language.

Associate Education Minister Marian Hobbs said last night that the Government would have to prioritise spending before making decisions.

She said although many schools offered language studies, there was an obligation to extend that, but curriculum changes would not occur before 2006.

Last night the primary teachers' union said increased language teaching needed money for resources.

New Zealand Educational Institute president Bruce Adin said making bold statements was "all well and good", but the Government had to be prepared to back it up.

"They have to be able to provide the skilled and qualified teachers necessary to make this work."

Organisers of the international language festival held in New Zealand last year said only 25 per cent of the 450,000 primary and secondary students now learn a language other than English.