Australia: Asia literacy: making a good policy better

[Francis Hult]

Via lgpolicy...
 
Asia literacy: making a good policy better
Author: Kent Anderson

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made 'Asia Literacy' a key goal for his
government. I am one of the strongest supporters of this agenda.
Nevertheless, let me identify two significant issues that hamper our
current approach. First, Asia Literacy is a term that has to be
interpreted broadly. It is commonly given too restricted a meaning.
Doubtless the prime minister sees Asia literacy in its broadest
meaning but it is important that language alone, however critical,
will not make us an Asia literate nation.

On the language front, Asia Literacy in practice is represented by the
National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program
(NALSSP),essentially is a cheaper version of the Rudd-designed
National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Program, or
NALSAS, that ran from 1994-2002. NALSSP will put $62.4 million over
three years into developing secondary teaching of Chinese, Japanese,
Indonesian, and Korean.

Full story:
http://eastasiaforum.org/2008/08/27/asia-literacy-making-a-good-policy-better/

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