'We're behind': Calls to overhaul ACT's school language education pathways

ACT public school language education plan found 'not fit for purpose' by parliamentary committee Mon 6 Jul 2026 at 7:02pm In short: The founder of Canberra's now-defunct external language program for senior students hopes the findings of an ACT parliamentary inquiry will add language education to the government's to-do list. The assembly committee found enrolments in ATAR-level language courses had declined since the pathways program closed at the end of last year, and accused the government of complacency before and since. What's next? An ACT Education Directorate spokesperson said the government would consider the committee's report and respond within the required timeframe. The ACT government's blueprint to deliver language education in Canberra public schools is "not fit for purpose", a parliamentary committee has found. The ACT Legislative Assembly committee inquiry into access to year 11 and 12 ATAR language courses also found gaps in the public school system were denying senior students opportunities to continue their language studies into college. There has been a drop in the number of senior students enrolled in language courses and now there are calls for the government to once again deliver a centralised ATAR-level language learning plan. "We're behind what's happening in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in terms of completion of continuing courses at year 12 level by the graduating cohorts," language education advocate Frank Keighley said. "It just shouldn't be like that because we've got so much happening in Canberra that is very focused on needing language skills — we've got diplomatic missions, we've got foreign affairs, we've got trade, we've got defence. "There are all sorts of reasons why we should be the strongest player." Government 'failed to fulfil commitments' Year 11 and 12 students who had wanted to study a language not offered at their school, could do so through a centralised ATAR language program until it closed to new students this year. The program had been delivered through the Canberra Academy of Languages between 2017 and 2023, but was taken over by CIT Solutions when the academy's founders, including Mr Keighley, retired. "We were astonished, my wife Ros and I, when we saw that what we thought was a safe pair of hands fell over quite unexpectedly," Mr Keighley said. "[CIT Solutions] were fully on board with the whole concept, and looked like a really safe transition for what was envisaged and what we'd been working on for the previous seven or eight years." The winding up of the program prompted an e-petition that attracted more than 500 signatures, and in turn led to the assembly committee inquiry. The committee found the government's "inaction" following the impending loss of the program "showed complacency with respect to the importance of language learning pathways". "The ACT government has not provided equitable continuous language learning pathways through to Years 11 and 12 across the public education system," the report said. The government's Language Education Action Plan was also found to be "not fit for purpose", with the report stating the government had "failed to fulfil its commitments under the plan". For those students who did try to enrol out-of-area in order to study a language of their choice in year 11 and 12, a "significant portion" were unable to do so "due to school capacity limitations, despite ACT government advice to the contrary." "Equity is a big issue on a whole lot of levels,"Mr Keighley said. "The numbers that we're seeing and the proportion of graduating cohorts doing languages in public schools is not as strong as it is in private schools at the moment. I'd like to see that addressed." The report made nine recommendations, including that the government review its Language Education Action Plan, and either contract or directly deliver a centralised ATAR-level language learning program, at no cost to ACT public school students. "The committee recommends that the ACT government undertake the necessary workforce planning to determine how many qualified language educators are employed by the Education Directorate, and where these educators work," the report said. Language education issues 'not new' Canberra Liberals' education spokesperson Elizabeth Lee described the report as "scathing" and said it was alarming that the Education Directorate did not already know which languages were being taught in which schools. She said the issues were "not new" and she had been pushing for changes since 2019. "So even back then, I had been raising alarm bells that what was currently on offer in ACT government schools was not hitting the benchmark,"she said. "We talked about the fact that children had a very broken pathway to learning languages. "So for example, someone who was learning one language in primary school even though it's a feeder school, didn't have the opportunity to actually learn the same language when they went into high school." Ms Lee urged the education minister to "take the recommendations seriously". "This is the nation's capital. We're the home of the National University. We're the home of DFAT and we're the home of more than 200 missions from all around the world," she said. "The fact that this government hasn't been able to deliver a world-class language education system to Canberra's students is a shame." Teaching union points to 'inadequate workforce' Patrick Judge, secretary of the ACT branch of the Australian Education Union, told a budget estimates committee last week that inadequate workforce planning had been a major factor behind the decline in language education. "When the government says it's going to deliver programs through schools, whatever those programs are, it needs to plan to have a workforce in place to deliver them," he said. "It's pretty clear that there have been some shortcomings there." Veronica Elliott of the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Association agreed, and she questioned whether the ACT education system had reached a point where tough questions needed to be asked. "Some of our schools have really struggled to actually get teachers in front of students every day,"Ms Elliott said. "When that's happening I think our first priority as a system absolutely has to be finding qualified staff to be in classrooms, to make sure that we can offer what would be a baseline expectation of an education system. "[The current system is] not fair and it's not equitable, and without a huge amount of money and investment in the system, we may need to reprioritise. "And whilst we'd all love for students to be learning a language, because it is in the curriculum and it is important … we want our kids to be able to learn to read and write, and we want them to have a teacher in front of them every day." Government 'exploring language access options' In a statement, a spokesperson for the ACT Education Directorate said the government was committed to strengthening language education opportunities for all students across ACT public schools. "Languages are offered in rich and diverse contexts in ACT public schools from preschool to Year 12," the spokesperson said. "In 2025, 11 different languages were taught across ACT public schools, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, Auslan, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. "In 2026, language education offerings for senior secondary students in ACT public colleges continue to be determined by schools in response to local demand and available teaching expertise, supported through system-wide reforms. "As part of this work, the Education Directorate is exploring language access options for senior secondary students, including in-school delivery, cross-college arrangements, out-of-area enrolment and specialist providers." The spokesperson said the government would consider the committee's report and respond within the required timeframe. [Image text:] how at Subjetyms to 1587 ut.