Garrett summons business leaders for talks on Asian language crisis

Peter Garrett today meets with business leaders to work out how to increase interest in Asian languages among students.

SCHOOL Education Minister Peter Garrett today convenes a round table with business leaders to work out how to increase interest in Asian languages among students.

"The global financial focus is turning to the Asian region (so) building relationships with our Asian neighbours has never been more critical for Australia's future prosperity," Mr Garrett said.

In Canberra, he will host talks with a score of business leaders including philanthropist Sid Myer, the Business Council of Australia's Patrick Coleman, Leighton Holdings' Kirk Coningham and CPA Australia's Paul Drum.

The round table follows Mr Garrett's declaration in February that a $62.15 million Rudd-era program to boost Asian languages in schools was not succeeding.

Language experts say the program was not given sufficient time and money. Only 5.8 per cent of Year 12 students study an Asian language. Just 3 per cent take Mandarin and 94 per cent of them are from Chinese-speaking backgrounds. Kevin Rudd's policy was to have at least 12 per cent of pupils leave Year 12 competent in Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian or Korean by 2020.

In a speech last week the former prime minister conceded that numbers had gone backwards over the past decade.

One problem was that although business groups lectured universities on the need for more Asian studies graduates, their employer members did not appear to give a high priority to these skills when recruiting new staff.

"This in turn creates confusion for both students and parents who fear that even if their children slog away at school and university on one of the more difficult languages of Asia, that this will not necessarily equip them for a decent career," Mr Rudd said.

"The fact is something is not quite working out there between the supply and the demand side of Asian language and Asian studies graduates. And we need to get to the bottom of why that is the case."

Supply-side problems, such as retirement of teachers and closure of language departments, have been well publicised, but Mr Garrett's round table is an attempt to look more closely at demand.