Decline in Asian language studies parents' fault, says Education Minister Peter Garrett

EDUCATION Minister Peter Garrett has blamed parents for the national decline in students studying Asian languages at school.

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EDUCATION Minister Peter Garrett has blamed parents for the national decline in students studying Asian languages at school.

Interviewed on Sky News's Australian Agenda this morning, Mr Garrett also reaffirmed he would refuse to serve in any future cabinet headed by Kevin Rudd.

Mr Garrett conceded take-up of Asian languages had dropped despite a $60 million program designed to lift their profile in schools.

"The fact is we don't have a driving culture at this point in time which from a parental point of view, we want our kids to be in these schools learning these Asian languages," Mr Garrett said.

"We spent $60 million (over several years) on a program Mr (John) Howard's government got rid of, and then when we look at the response to the program it didn't set out what it aimed to achieve.

"We believe it's very important, we'll continue to push through and look at ways of increasing that engagement."

Mr Garrett also said there was "no question" a new schools funding model - proposed by the Gonski review - would require more public money.

He described the Coalition's backing for the existing funding model was "appalling" and opposition spokesman Christopher Pyne's emphasised class sizes "because it's one of those easy to get into the paper kinds of issues".

A report by Murdoch University professor David Hill in February revealed a 37 per cent decline in Indonesian language students at university from 2001 to 2010, and a separate report found school enrolments had been falling by 10,000 a year since 2001.

Fewer Australian school students are learning Indonesian in 2009 than in 1972, under the White Australia Policy.

Indonesia had three cabinet members who had studied in Australia but "no member of the Australian parliament has ever studied in Indonesia, speaks Indonesian, or brings a similar depth of knowledge to the table," said the report by Professor Hill, the chair of Southeast Asian studies at Murdoch University.