Australia: Bilingual debate rages in Northern Territory

[Francis Hult]

ABC News

 

Bilingual debate rages in NT

 

Jerry Patrick Jangala was a young man in the late 1940s when he saw white men for the first time. 

 

They put him in a truck and took him from the Tanami Desert to what is now called Lajamanu, a remote Aboriginal community about 900 kilometres south of Darwin.

 

Mr Jangala is one of Lajamanu's last traditional elders, and his language, Warlpiri, is one of only about 20 Aboriginal languages still spoken by Indigenous children.

 

[...]

 

In October last year, the Government decided to slash bilingual education hours in eight public schools, blaming the policy for the poor educational outcomes in the remote communities where the program was in place. 

Full story:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/14/2685205.htm?section=justin

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